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   <channel>
   <title>RealGM Sports Analysis</title>
   <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/news/analysis</link>
   <description>RealGM Sports Analysis</description>
   <language>en-us</language>
   <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 01:17:37 EDT</pubDate>
   <lastBuildDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 01:17:37 EDT</lastBuildDate>
   <item>
      <title>2026 NBA Finals, Game 5 Review: Jalen Brunson&apos;s Perfect Finish To Win It For New York</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/286070/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-5-Review-Jalen-Brunsons-Perfect-Finish-To-Win-It-For-New-York</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Jalen Brunson and Rick Brunson joined the Inside the NBA crew shortly after winning the New York Knicks their first title since 1973 and attempted to distill his approach to the game and to his life. Perhaps as a blueprint for everyone else who has been routinely doubted, but also to explain how he defied all expectations for how a championship roster is built and what a Finals MVP is supposed to look like.
&quot;I&apos;d be lying to you if I said I saw this,&quot; said Brunson. &quot;But what he instilled in me as a kid, you never know what&apos;s going to happen if you just continue to work hard. You never know when you just focus on winning. You&apos;re not focusing on yourself, the individual accolades that you can get.
&quot;He kind of instilled that in me. So every step of the way I was focused. You guys ask me questions and I feel like I&apos;m programmed to say that because I actually believe those things. I believe it&apos;s all about the team and our success. If we win, everybody eats.&quot;
---
The Knicks and Spurs exchange multiple empty possessions to open the game. The Spurs are playing desperate and the Knicks want to let Game 4 stay unencumbered as the MSG celebration game with everything but the trophy.&amp;nbsp;
Wembanyama picks up an early foul on a grab trying to get a defensive rebound. Wembanyama eventually scores the first points of the game on a dunk in transition over two minutes in when found by Castle. Wembanyama blocks Towns at the rim and Towns falls to the ground.
Brunson responds with a three-pointer.
Wembanyama blocks Towns again in the paint.
Wembanyama blocks Anunoby on the drive from the baseline.
The Knicks&apos; gameplan is to attack Wembanyama directly on defense.
Harper checks in for Fox with 7:49 remaining in the first quarter.
In the halfcourt, Wembanyama screens and rolls right down the paint to draw in the help defense. Easy put-back slam.
Harper hits a spot-up three from the top of the arc.
Anunoby gets his three-pointer off before Wembanyama can close out in the left corner.
With Wembanyama taking his first rest of the game, Hart misses a clean corner three and Harper drives the lane for a floater.
Harper makes another tough shot with the reverse, using his strength and balance. He already has seven of San Antonio&apos;s 15 points.
The Spurs get a stop on the next possession with a shot clock violation.
The Knicks are 2-for-17 to begin the game after an Anunoby miss at the basket in transition. A Brunson miss makes it 2-for-18.
San Antonio goes up 18-8 on a wide open three from Keldon Johnson. For the fifth time in five Finals games, the Spurs have a 10-point lead.
Brunson stops the run with a midrange baseline jumper on Harper.
Fox gets into the lane for his first bucket after a tentative start.
Brunson hits a deep three from the right wing. The Knicks have struggled on offense in the first quarter but are only down seven as it winds down.
Champagnie makes a three to extend the lead to 23-13.
Brunson, stood up by Castle on a drive on the Knicks&apos; last possession, throws a grenade to Hart for a deep three he misses to end the first.
The Spurs are playing with their customary confidence and energy to start the game in the face of a 3-1 deficit. The script is unchanged from the first four games of the series, and the Spurs will not lay down in an elimination game the way the Hawks, Sixers and Cavaliers did for the Knicks.
---
Wembanyama blocks Alvarado&apos;s corner three-point attempt on the Knicks&apos; first possession of the second quarter.
Champagnie hits another three, Spurs up 26-13.
Wembanyama blocks Shamet at the rim on the cut, off a pass from Towns.
The Knicks continue to be in the mud on offense, scoreless three minutes into the second quarter until Towns makes a low-probability fadeaway jumper.
Wembanyama swishes a three on the right wing, Spurs up 31-15.
Wembanyama picks up his second foul on the Knicks&apos; next possession. The call is challenged by Mitch Johnson and overturned, with Towns getting his second foul instead.
With Wembanyama taking his next rest, the Knicks work the ball around until the end of the shot clock and find Bridges for a corner three.
Brunson blows by Kornet and gets to the rim but misses. Harper gets to his spot near the elbow for an easy jumper.
Hart hits another Knicks three as the halfcourt offense gets immensely easier without Wembanyama on the floor.
Brunson hits a three off a long offensive rebound. Knicks cut the lead to 33-24.
Wembanyama checks back in.
Brunson gets to his spot for another bucket. He&apos;s been the only reliable offense for the Knicks.
Brunson hits another jumper, Knicks on a 10-2 run. He already has 15 points while the Knicks only have 28 total. Brunson has single-handedly kept the Knicks in the game.
After Wembanyama gets his own offensive rebound against Robinson in a way that only he could, Fox hits a tough three as the shot clock runs out.
Bridges hits another quick-release three to make it 38-32 Spurs.
Castle drives and draws a foul on Towns, his third of the game.
Bridges misses threes on consecutive possessions.
Hart speeds past Fox for a layup and is pushed in the back by Fox in a lazy play, upgraded to a flagrant 1. Fox received considerable criticism for his play at the end of Game 4 and hasn&apos;t played with the requisite confidence in the first half of Game 5.
Bridges hits a runner into the lane over Kornet to make it a five-point possession. Knicks only down 40-37.
Fox can&apos;t shake Anunoby and misses the iso three.
Vassell gets into the lane from the second side and hits a running jumper going left at the buzzer of the first half. Spurs lead 42-37 at halftime.
---
Towns picks up his fourth foul on the Spurs&apos; opening possession of the second half, fouling Wembanyama on a lob attempt.
Fox misses a clean three-point look. It will be interesting how quickly Johnson subs in Harper.
Wembanyama gets the steal off Anunoby and starts the fastbreak, getting the ball to Champagnie and then Fox before getting it back for an and-1 dunk as he&apos;s pushed from behind by Robinson, upgraded to a flagrant 1. Champagnie then hits a three to make it a six-point possession, Spurs now leading 51-41.
Wembanyama spins into the paint off the dribble for an easy jumper from about 10 feet.
The Spurs bring in Harper for Fox at the same time as in the first half, and he immediately drives to the basket in the halfcourt for a layup.
Anunoby fights through Castle and Kornet to cut the lead to five.
Wembanyama checks back in after the timeout and Harper hits a jumper. On the next possession, Harper finds Wembanyama at the basket.
Brunson hits a three and injures his ankle landing on Wembanyama&apos;s foot, a clear flagrant foul that would have suspended Wembanyama for Game 6 if called. After Brunson takes a few beats to get up and Vassell hits a three, he runs over to referee Tyler Ford screaming about the non-call.
Out of the timeout, Brunson looks fine with his mobility.
Harper hits a three on the Spurs&apos; next possession, up 65-53.
Harper then ties up Brunson on the drive as a help defender.
After several misses, Harper draws a foul attacking the basket and draws a &quot;Dylan Harper&quot; chant from the Spurs crowd.
On the next possession Harper gets to the basket again and follows his own miss for a hard-fought bucket, extending the lead to 68-53. Harper has 21 points.
Brunson stops the run by getting to the line.
Brunson draws a foul on Harper on a three-point attempt and makes all three. 70-61 with 1:26 left in the third.
Fox speeds into the lane for a runner.
Brunson misses his shot as the third quarter winds down on the Wembanyama contest, but Robinson is freed up for the putback. 72-65 San Antonio entering the fourth.
Despite the foul trouble for both Towns and Anunoby, along with yet another breakout performance from Harper, the Knicks are well within striking distance against a Spurs team that has struggled late into games.
---
Hart gets the Knicks a second-chance rebound to start the fourth, but Towns throws the ball away after being unable to get past Wembanyama on the drive.
Johnson hits a three to extend the Spurs&apos; lead back to 10. Hart fires back with an open three.
Johnson gets an offensive rebound of his own and the ball eventually finds Vassell, who drives and kicks to Wembanyama in the corner. Wembanyama drives baseline for the dunk as Towns can&apos;t contest with four fouls.
Castle and Wembanyama set up the lob perfectly but Wembanyama can&apos;t get it to fall.
Shamet&apos;s three makes it 77-71 Spurs.
Vassell hits a deep spot-up three, lead back to 80-71.
Wembanyama blocks the drive from Alvarado off the glass.
Shamet drives for a tough layup and comes up limping, with Harper scoring 5-on-4 going the other way for the Spurs.
Brunson brings the Knicks to a six-point deficit at 83-77. He has 34 points in what has been a singular performance to keep this potential closeout game within reach. On the Spurs&apos; side, Fox and Castle are a combined 3-for-18.
Out of the timeout, Castle overdribbles and badly bricks a jumper, with Wembanyama called for the loose-ball foul fighting Towns for the rebound.
Brunson isolates on Wembanyama on the left wing, gets him on his backside, and slows down to get to the basket. 83-79.
Towns misses the stepback jumper that would have made it a one-point game.
Wembanyama called for another foul by Scott Foster upon the catch, pushed by Towns into Hart, immediately challenged and obviously overturned.
Fox gets an easy look in the lane from about six feet but it rims out. Brunson gets the ball back down the floor and attacks the basket to get to the line. He makes both free throws to cut it to 83-81, and Johnson pulls Wembanyama for his last rest before the final push.
Fox misses short from the left elbow.
Brunson speeds to the basket for another layup to tie it at 83-83 and reaches 40 for the game.
Anunoby picks up his fifth foul on a loose ball. Wembanyama checks back in. Vassell dribbles in off the three-point line for a long two.
Brunson misses a baseline jumper, but the Spurs can&apos;t grab an easy rebound. Brunson gets Vassell to bite on a shot fake and draws a three-shot foul. He makes all three. Knicks take an 86-85 lead with 3:40 left.
Fox misses again.
Mike Brown calls timeout before the Spurs can get organized enough to intentionally foul Robinson. Out of the timeout, Brunson is called for an offensive foul hitting Castle in the face with his off-hand.
Castle drives and misses.
Towns misses his attempt and Hart misses the offensive rebound putback.
Harper drives to the lane and misses.
Anunoby attacks the rim and Vassell is called for a goaltend. 88-85 Knicks.
Wembanyama draws the sixth foul on Towns driving into the lane as he pivots into him. Wembanyama misses his first free throw, makes the second. 88-86 Knicks.
Brunson gets Vassell on the switch and misses off the top of the backboard from the right baseline.
Harper makes the turnaround jumper, getting all the way to the basket on Bridges. Tied at 88-88.
Brunson quickly puts the Knicks back up.
Fox misses a clean three-point attempt.
Hart misses a wide open three that would have put the Knicks up five.
Harper goes coast-to-coast and can&apos;t quite finish on the contest from Anunoby.
Hart intentionally fouled with 26.1 left. He makes the first and misses the second, but Robinson critically grabs the offensive rebound, overpowering Wembanyama.
Anunoby makes the first to put the Knicks up 92-88. He misses the second and the Spurs grab the tough rebound.
Wembanyama misses the three-point attempt but Castle gets a putback slam. 92-90. Castle&apos;s first points of Game 5.
The Spurs go for a steal against Brunson and let about eight seconds run off the clock before Bridges is fouled. He misses the first attempt, makes the second. Knicks up 93-90.
The Knicks defend the Spurs&apos; inbound play well, forcing it to Harper near halfcourt, who is immediately fouled. Harper misses both. Anunoby grabs the rebound and is fouled.
Anunoby misses the first and then makes the second to extend the Knicks&apos; lead to 94-90.
Wembanyama misses a three-pointer long to end the game.
--
The Knicks are NBA champions, which seemed implausible because it had been so long and the roster&apos;s construction ran counter to everything the league currently believes about how championships are built.&amp;nbsp;
Leon Rose didn&apos;t have to tank over multiple years to land multiple All-NBA talents via lottery luck. His predecessors were expected to sign Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and create a superteam and a culture out of thin air. Rose instead signed a former second-round pick he&apos;d known since he was a baby, a player who had won multiple national championships in college. He then arbitraged a bunch of trades to have enough left to trade for Josh Hart then OG Anunoby then Mikal Bridges then Karl-Anthony Towns.
Brunson elevated his game with a bigger opportunity and became the superstar and gravitational force that allowed everything else to come together.
Like the 2015 Warriors, the Knicks had a second-generation star who became the type of superstar and gravitational force around which a finely assembled supporting cast made the team better than the sum of its parts.
---
Spike Lee shot Michael Jordan&apos;s early Nike commercials and there was a mythological poetry to it. Shaquille O&apos;Neal was of the Michael Bay era. Wembanyama is a Wes Anderson character brought to life.
Wembanyama has arrived. And he&apos;s here to tell you about it, with all his naked ambition and conspicuous precociousness. As much as the Alien nickname fits his unprecedented combination of height and skill, it&apos;s also fitting for his weird personality. It isn&apos;t college-junior-just-back-from-studying-abroad-in-Paris weird, but it is undoubtedly NBA-superstar weird.
He actively signals his nerdom: impromptu chess challenges in Greenwich Village, reading Brandon Sanderson before his prescriptive early bedtime, drawing a statue of John Wilkes Booth&apos;s brother as Hamlet in Gramercy Park before Game 3, walking the tunnels of Madison Square Garden barefoot afterward. He trained at a Shaolin temple in the offseason. Wembanyama has always eaten clean and healthy, and his mother never cooked the same thing twice for him.
We all know a version of Wembanyama&apos;s personality type. But at least he isn&apos;t yet another Gen Z star approximating Kobe Bryant. Kobe similarly had a very curated celebrity persona, initially copying both the game and mannerisms of Michael Jordan before evolving it into what became Black Mamba.
Wembanyama is relentlessly tactical and seems to believe that his unprecedented length, skill and agility will logically make him basketball&apos;s GOAT, merely if he completes all the prerequisite courses, maintains his austere diet and sleep schedule, and continues his cross-training to avoid injury.
Wembanyama losing in his first Finals appearance will be a learning experience. He explained as much after the game. Wembanyama was on the verge of irrevocably switching to villain status in Game 4 before blowing the 29-point lead made him all too human. The loss here will become part of the mythology he will surely curate. It will make him better and more interesting. We&apos;ll hear from him again.
---
The Game 4 win was for the Knicks&apos; fans to celebrate. Game 5, on the road, was for the players to celebrate on their own.
---
Jalen Brunson saved the defining game of his career for the moment that will define multiple generations of Knicks&apos; fans.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christopher Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2026 01:59:03 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/286070/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-5-Review-Jalen-Brunsons-Perfect-Finish-To-Win-It-For-New-York</guid>
   </item>
   <item>
      <title>2026 FIFA World Cup xG Tracker: Results, Expected Goals Of Every Match</title>
      <link>https://soccer.realgm.com/analysis/559/2026-FIFA-World-Cup-xG-Tracker-Results-Expected-Goals-Of-Every-Match</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Our 2026 FIFA World Cup xG Tracker logs expected goals (xG) and final scores for every match of the tournament. Updated after each final whistle, this page serves as a running record of how the numbers align with the results across all 104 matches.Expected goals measures the quality of a scoring chance based on factors like shot location, assist type, and defensive pressure. A team can win while underperforming its xG, or dominate possession and still lose. The gap between xG and actual goals is often where the real story lives.Countries in bold indicate the match winner. No country is in bold in instances of a tie.Group Stage - Matchday 1June 11 (Group A): Mexico 1.41 xG (2) vs. South Africa 0.07 xG (0)June 11 (Group A): South Korea 1.84 xG (2) vs. Czechia 0.81 xG (1)June 12 (Group B): Canada &amp;nbsp;1.25 xG (1) vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.98 xG (1)June 12 (Group D): United States 1.35 xG (4) vs. Paraguay 0.47 xG (1)June 13 (Group B): Qatar 0.76 xG (1) vs. Switzerland 3.24 xG (1)June 13 (Group C): Brazil 1.23 xG (1) vs. Morocco 1.53 xG (1)June 13 (Group C): Haiti 1.21 xG (0) vs. Scotland 1.05 xG (1)June 13 (Group D): Australia 0.77 xG (2) vs. T&amp;uuml;rkiye 1.33 (0)June 14 (Group E): Germany 4.22 xG (7) vs. Cura&amp;ccedil;ao 0.41 xG (1)June 14 (Group F): Netherlands 0.78 xG (1) vs. Japan 0.59 xG (1)June 14 (Group E): C&amp;ocirc;te d\&apos;Ivoire 1.68 xG (1) vs. Ecuador 1.03 xG (0)June 14 (Group F): Sweden vs. TunisiaJune 15 (Group H): Spain vs. Cape VerdeJune 15 (Group G): Belgium vs. EgyptJune 15 (Group H): Saudi Arabia vs. UruguayJune 15 (Group G): Iran vs. New ZealandJune 16 (Group I): France vs. SenegalJune 16 (Group I): Iraq vs. NorwayJune 16 (Group J): Argentina vs. AlgeriaJune 16 (Group J): Austria vs. JordanJune 17 (Group K): Portugal vs. DR CongoJune 17 (Group L): England vs. CroatiaJune 17 (Group L): Ghana vs. PanamaGroup Stage - Matchday 2June 18 (Group K): Uzbekistan vs. ColombiaJune 18 (Group A): Czechia vs. South AfricaJune 18 (Group B): Switzerland vs. Bosnia and HerzegovinaJune 18 (Group B): Canada vs. QatarJune 19 (Group A): Mexico vs. South KoreaJune 19 (Group D): United States vs. AustraliaJune 19 (Group C): Scotland vs. MoroccoJune 20 (Group C): Brazil vs. HaitiJune 20 (Group D): T&amp;uuml;rkiye vs. ParaguayJune 20 (Group F): Netherlands vs. SwedenJune 20 (Group E): Germany vs. C&amp;ocirc;te d\&apos;IvoireJune 21 (Group E): Ecuador vs. Cura&amp;ccedil;aoJune 21 (Group F): Tunisia vs. JapanJune 21 (Group H): Spain vs. Saudi ArabiaJune 21 (Group G): Belgium vs. IranJune 21 (Group H): Uruguay vs. Cape VerdeJune 22 (Group G): New Zealand vs. EgyptJune 22 (Group J): Argentina vs. AustriaJune 22 (Group I): France vs. IraqJune 22 (Group I): Norway vs. SenegalJune 22 (Group J): Jordan vs. AlgeriaJune 23 (Group L): England vs. GhanaJune 23 (Group L): Panama vs. CroatiaJune 23 (Group K): Portugal vs. UzbekistanJune 23 (Group K): Colombia vs. DR CongoGroup Stage - Matchday 3 (Simultaneous Kick-offs)June 24 (Group C): Scotland vs. BrazilJune 24 (Group C): Morocco vs. HaitiJune 24 (Group B): Switzerland vs. CanadaJune 24 (Group B): Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. QatarJune 24 (Group A): Czechia vs. MexicoJune 24 (Group A): South Africa vs. South KoreaJune 25 (Group E): Cura&amp;ccedil;ao vs. C&amp;ocirc;te d\&apos;IvoireJune 25 (Group E): Ecuador vs. GermanyJune 25 (Group F): Japan vs. SwedenJune 25 (Group F): Tunisia vs. NetherlandsJune 25 (Group D): T&amp;uuml;rkiye vs. United StatesJune 25 (Group D): Paraguay vs. AustraliaJune 26 (Group G): Egypt vs. IranJune 26 (Group G): New Zealand vs. BelgiumJune 26 (Group H): Cape Verde vs. Saudi ArabiaJune 26 (Group H): Uruguay vs. SpainJune 27 (Group I): Norway vs. FranceJune 27 (Group I): Senegal vs. IraqJune 27 (Group J): Algeria vs. AustriaJune 27 (Group J): Jordan vs. ArgentinaJune 27 (Group K): Colombia vs. PortugalJune 27 (Group K): DR Congo vs. UzbekistanJune 27 (Group L): Panama vs. EnglandJune 27 (Group L): Croatia vs. Ghana2026 FIFA World Cup xG Differential Rankings1. Germany: +3.812. Switzerland: +2.483. Mexico: +1.344. South Korea: +1.035. United States: +0.886. C&amp;ocirc;te d\&apos;Ivoire: +0.657. T&amp;uuml;rkiye: +0.568. Morocco: +0.309. Canada: +0.2710. Netherlands: +0.1911. Haiti: +0.1612. Scotland: -0.1613. Japan: -0.1914. Bosnia and Herzegovina: -0.2715. Brazil: -0.3016. Australia: -0.5617. Ecuador: -0.6518. Paraguay: -0.8819. Czechia: -1.0320. South Africa: -1.3421. Qatar: -2.4822. Cura&amp;ccedil;ao: -3.81]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[RealGM Staff Report]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:26:47 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://soccer.realgm.com/analysis/559/2026-FIFA-World-Cup-xG-Tracker-Results-Expected-Goals-Of-Every-Match</guid>
   </item>
   <item>
      <title>NBA Draft Report: Hannes Steinbach Of Washington</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/286037/NBA-Draft-Report-Hannes-Steinbach-Of-Washington</link>
      <description><![CDATA[If Hannes Steinbach was available in the late 1990s or early 2000s, NBA front offices would have been going crazy over him. The German big, who stands at 6&amp;rsquo;10.25&amp;rsquo;&amp;rsquo; barefoot, with a 7&amp;rsquo;2.25&amp;rsquo;&amp;rsquo; wingspan, averaged 18.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, and 1.1 steals per game in his freshman season in college. He provided Washington with high-level production from the second he stepped on the court, and he did it without dominating the ball. He&amp;rsquo;s efficient, plays the right way, and he doesn&amp;rsquo;t take anything away from his teammates.&amp;nbsp;
Steinbach was also excellent when playing against strong competition. In seven meetings with ranked opponents (at the time), the big man averaged 18.6 points and 11.9 rebounds per game. He was the same reliable player against some of the best, and biggest, frontlines he went up against.&amp;nbsp;
Steinbach is just fantastic as a finisher, he&amp;rsquo;s dangerous as the screener in pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop scenarios, and he&amp;rsquo;s quick. Quick with the ball in his hands, and quick as a decision maker.&amp;nbsp;
There&amp;rsquo;s a real chance Steinbach ends up being a force offensively at the five. It&amp;rsquo;s rare to see a big man that looks so light on his feet, and he combines that with a unique comfort playing in crowded areas. He also has a feathery touch on top of that, which is part of what makes him so good as a roller. The touch is also instrumental when deciding whether you&amp;rsquo;d bet on him as a shooter. Steinbach didn&amp;rsquo;t take a lot of jumpers with the Huskies, but his mechanics are solid. Plus, he shot 75.9% from the line. There are good indicators of long-term success for him as a shooter.&amp;nbsp;
As strictly an offensive player, there&amp;rsquo;s shades of Alperen Sengun in Steinbach. The overlap shows up in his footwork and competence as a ball handler, even if Steinbach isn&amp;rsquo;t nearly as eager to play with his back to the basket &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;or as good as a playmaking hub. However, Steinbach also has special touch and an ability to impact games as a cutter and putback guy. He&amp;rsquo;s more of a blue-collar player than Sengun, but his skill set is both admirable and scalable.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;
Steinbach is arguably the best rebounder in the draft class, and he should immediately be an impactful rebounder in the NBA. Not only did he average 11.8 rebounds per game, he also had a 25.0% defensive rebound rate and 14.3% offensive rebound rate. Both of those numbers had him right near the top of college basketball as a freshman. He&amp;rsquo;s big enough, he&amp;rsquo;s long enough, and he&amp;rsquo;s quick enough off the ground &amp;mdash; despite not being an explosive leaper &amp;mdash; to continue to be awesome on the glass. He also just has a tremendous feel for coming down with boards, and it&amp;rsquo;s pretty easy to picture him being a menace in a playoff series.&amp;nbsp;
Outside of the scoring, finishing, and rebounding, Steinbach should also be a good connective passer. That doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean he&amp;rsquo;ll generate high assist totals. As previously mentioned, he&amp;rsquo;s not going to be someone you run the offense through and expect assists. But he&amp;rsquo;ll keep the ball moving, make big-to-big passes inside, and use all of his talents to create opportunities for his teammates.&amp;nbsp;
Steinbach just needs to continue to expand his range. Taking things a step further as a shooter will determine whether he outperforms his draft slot. The same goes for finding out where he fits best defensively. Is he quick enough to guard fours? Is he big enough to guard fives? Right now, it&amp;rsquo;s hard to imagine him doing either at a high level, and many are concerned about his lateral movement. However, given he&amp;rsquo;s slated to be picked in the late lottery, or just outside of it, there&amp;rsquo;s a good chance he gets drafted to a team with a strong defensive infrastructure. Some of the dream spots include Miami, Oklahoma City, Toronto, and San Antonio. Those teams are set up to maximize what he does offensively while minimizing his deficiencies on defense.&amp;nbsp;
This is just one of those situations in which front offices &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;or even draft analysts, in general &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;have two choices. They can poke holes in his game, ignoring what he does well, to question his fit in the modern NBA, or they can focus on the strengths and figure out how to make it all work. But it does feel like we&amp;rsquo;re in an era of NBA basketball where good players find ways to contribute, and great coaches are capable of figuring it all out. That said, there&amp;rsquo;s a real argument to be made that Steinbach, who might be a top-five producer in this draft, is being severely underrated as a prospect that sits outside the top 10 on most boards. That feels especially true considering he grew up in the European system, meaning he&amp;rsquo;s a mature player with a high basketball IQ.&amp;nbsp;]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Zachary Cohen]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 17:31:48 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/286037/NBA-Draft-Report-Hannes-Steinbach-Of-Washington</guid>
   </item>
   <item>
      <title>World Cup 2026: The Last Dance Collides With A Generational Shift</title>
      <link>https://soccer.realgm.com/analysis/558/World-Cup-2026-The-Last-Dance-Collides-With-A-Generational-Shift</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The weeks leading up to the 2026 World Cup showcased a stylistic shift driven by a new generation emerging on the grandest stages. The last Saturday of May began with the Champions League Final between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, with both sides pushing modernity with attacking rotations and off-the-ball pressing energized by the likes of 21-year-old Joao Neves and 19-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly in midfield. PSG&amp;rsquo;s penalty shootout victory led into the San Antonio Spurs&amp;rsquo; win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals led by 22-year-old Victor Wembanyama, 21-year-old Stephon Castle, and 20-year-old Dylan Harper. The blend of tactics, athleticism, and physicality was carried by youth. So if you were to believe in underlying cultural trends, the 2026 World Cup would signal a breakout moment for the likes of 18-year-old Lamine Yamal. 21-year-old Desire Doue, 22-year-old Jude Bellingham, and 19-year-old Endrick.Though international competitions have always marched to their own beat. With limited training time, national team play resembles less of the structured movements and choreographed pressing of the domestic game and resorts to bread-and-butter concepts of defending deep with two banks of four players, with matches decided by individual creativity in transitions. Without rehearsed structures, international matches get as close to the purity of rolling the ball out onto the pitch and letting talent decide. Directly colliding with the youth movement, the tournament also represents a last dance for three players who shaped the previous generation in the 38-year-old Lionel Messi, 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, and the 34-year-old Neymar.&amp;nbsp;In fact, Messi is even defined by how much he runs counter to modernity: the lack of running is part of his genius.&amp;nbsp;But we&amp;rsquo;re seeing legends become liabilities in real time. In criticizing Ronaldo&amp;rsquo;s inclusion on the roster, former Portugal international Antonio Simoes said that the striker &amp;ldquo;doesn&amp;rsquo;t play to win, he plays to be the main figure.&amp;rdquo; National team manager Roberto Martinez defended his star player, though he focused on the symbolic aspects in justifying the striker&amp;rsquo;s inclusion by describing him as a &amp;ldquo;role model&amp;rdquo; to his teammates.&amp;ldquo;Our captain sets an example in everything he does,&amp;rdquo; added Martinez, who also suggested that Ronaldo could appear in the 2030 World Cup.There was even a controversy as to whether Neymar, who has appeared in just eight matches this season, should even be on the squad. How does a national side juggle nostalgia versus youth? Leave it to the king of vibes management Carlo Ancelotti to select the striker, who subsequently suffered a calf injury and may miss Brazil&amp;rsquo;s opening match. The decision was quintessential Ancelotti in emphasizing personality and individual skill over science. The decision left 24-year-old striker Joao Pedro, who scored 20 goals last season and is known for his off-ball energy, off the roster. Ancelotti admitted that the Chelsea forward deserved to make the squad, but also acknowledged that while the European game is more intense, &amp;ldquo;we have to take many things into account.&amp;rdquo;&amp;ldquo;Neymar is much loved. Not just by fans, but by the players, too. If you call on Neymar, you won&amp;rsquo;t be causing a stir in the dressing room, because he&amp;rsquo;s so well-liked, loved so much,&amp;rdquo; said Ancelotti.&amp;nbsp;But we were just left with the image of PSG&amp;rsquo;s midfield and attack interchanging positions at speed plus the rotations of Arsenal&amp;rsquo;s off-ball approach. The gap between the modernity of the domestic game and the symbolic gestures of international play has never been wider. It is a different skill for Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni to tame the Messi-ness of building a balanced lineup around the superstar for short sprints versus the day-to-day marathon of the club game.Scaloni already had a minor slip in the buildup when getting misinterpreted about how much influence Messi supposedly has on his squad selection. The comments inevitably reached Martinez, who said that he talks to Ronaldo but makes his own lineup decisions. International managers must be savvy operators between backing their aging superstars with their outsized locker room influence but still retaining the illusion of autonomy in lineup selection.&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;What he generates is very difficult to explain. You have to experience it instead of trying to explain it. What he generates when he enters a locker room,&amp;rdquo; enthused Scaloni about Messi&amp;rsquo;s role in the squad.In backing his former Barcelona teammate to make the Brazil roster, Messi declared that Neymar, no matter what his form, will always be one of the best players in the world. He added that he couldn&amp;rsquo;t be objective when discussing Neymar because of &amp;ldquo;what he means to Brazil and to football.&amp;rdquo; It is much simpler to drop a player at the club level as we can point to decreases in physicality and expected goals. The nine months of the schedule is all-consuming with new narratives each weekend. National teams can still resolve to who is most loved by a country.&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash;With Vinicius Jr., Michael Olise, Bukayo Saka, Pedri, and Erling Haaland still 25 years old or under, the 2026 World Cup presents a unique age gap between aging superstars and players on the cusp of fulfilling their potential. Thus, a 27-year-old Kylian Mbappe and 29-year-old Ousmane Dembele are the only superstar attackers in their prime for the tournament.&amp;nbsp;Even within a small sample size, the World Cup leaves clues. International tournaments are won through pragmatic survival more than dominance, but that doesn&amp;rsquo;t rule out underlying generational shifts: Spain&amp;rsquo;s win in 2010 was the high point of the tiki-taka era. Germany cemented a grassroots overhaul of their player development approach in 2014. A then 19-years-old Mbappe won the FIFA Young Player Award. Likewise, there&amp;rsquo;s no dominant club or managerial style heading into this tournament, no cleverly branded philosophical idea - no Enrique- or Arteta-ball - just larger concepts of set pieces, directness, and off-ball shape. There&amp;rsquo;s no expected coronation like Messi in 2022. It&amp;rsquo;s a tournament where Crystal Palace has more players than Real Madrid or Liverpool.&amp;nbsp;Narratively and competitively, 2026 is wide open.&amp;nbsp;And yet endings create their own momentum. Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar are living history in real time, representing a game that predated data analytics, video analysis, and modern tactics. They experienced and thrived in the shift from individual playmakers to the larger collective, still bending the game to their imagination. An era of the game will be lost when they finally retire. The game has never been more modern heading into the 2026 World Cup and yet it still may be decided by its past.&amp;nbsp;]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Yu Miyagawa]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:15:08 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://soccer.realgm.com/analysis/558/World-Cup-2026-The-Last-Dance-Collides-With-A-Generational-Shift</guid>
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      <title>The Spurs Are Losing Against The Knicks, And Against Themselves</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/286030/The-Spurs-Are-Losing-Against-The-Knicks-And-Against-Themselves</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The San Antonio Spurs lost Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals. They now trail the New York Knicks 3-1 in the series. In isolation, that sentence may seem to explain a standard playoff basketball series, in which one team is simply better than the other, and proving it slowly. But in the onslaught of context and nerves that those immersed in these Finals have known for the past week, the experience has been anything normal. What has been happening is a historically flabbergasting affair, dramatic and singular in its shaky and triumphant humanism.
Game 4 displayed the wildest outcome yet, with the Knicks coming back from a 29-point deficit to finish the night with a decisive one-point surplus. It looked all but over, at halftime: not only were the Spurs up by nearly 30, but their dominance was a heightened continuation of what they&amp;rsquo;d done to take Game 3 in New York. By exerting a campaign of mega-pressure on Jalen Brunson, trapping and double-teaming the Knicks&amp;rsquo; point guard, they&amp;rsquo;d exploited a lack of ball handling, essentially closing the mouth on the head of the Knicks offensive snake.
O.G. Anunoby kept scoring no matter what&amp;mdash;he&amp;rsquo;s the one Knick who San Antonio has truly no matchup answers for&amp;mdash;but New York&amp;rsquo;s flow was otherwise gone. Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns couldn&amp;rsquo;t find their rhythm, and the team was living and dying (they were dying) with Josh Hart&amp;rsquo;s jumper. But in the second half on Wednesday night, head coach Mike Brown made a simple but ingenious adjustment. He reached just a bit deeper into his bench than usual, and extended reserve guard Jose Alvarado&amp;rsquo;s role.
Alvarado is an undersized player, but has typically made up for this with fearless moxie, clever dribbling, and scoring chops. He is eminently lovable, and was exactly what Brunson needed to breathe easier in this game, and spread the Spurs defense out just enough to get everyone comfortable again. And as the Knicks got more comfortable, the Spurs started to look less comfortable than just about any team ever has in the Finals. The Alvarado adjustment is a small one, when you zoom out. But for a team as new as the Spurs, any change in the terrain can cause painful chain reactions. Their following fourth-quarter collapse may very well be the new benchmark for how exactly not to proceed with a big lead in a must-win basketball game.
We can begin a description of what happened to San Antonio with an acknowledgement: they are young. Their best player, Victor Wembanyama, is 22 years old. The two cornerstone guards who flank him, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, are 21 and 20. It has been decades since a team this inexperienced has gotten this close to a championship, and the Spurs will be heavy favorites to keep getting back here in the years that follow this one. But, all that being said&amp;mdash;my goodness. Oh, my lord.
The Spurs&amp;rsquo; lead was still considerable at the start of the fourth quarter, at 15. They held it for a few minutes, even extending it briefly. But the hot-shooting dominance of the first half had long faded, with the team not seeming to recognize it; they made 14 three-pointers in the first half, but just three in the second half. That didn&amp;rsquo;t stop them from shooting from beyond the arc at volume, though. They hoisted 46 from deep over the course of the night, and looked utterly without an alternative plan when the well went dry. Head coach Mitch Johnson, as has been his protocol, eschewed the option of a timeout to calm and reorient his under-seasoned troops.
Johnson, himself, is on the young end too. At 39 years old, he is the third-youngest coach in the league, and it certainly looked that way, with his players frequently in odd parts of the court for no strategically advantageous reason&amp;mdash;why, for instance, was Wembanyama guarding the perimeter during the Knicks&amp;rsquo; last possession, when Jalen Brunson&amp;rsquo;s missed jumper turned into an easy game-winning tip-in by O.G. Anunoby? The Spurs have the most rim-dominating player in the sport, but kept him away from the hoop during the most important moment of their season.
The list could go on, but special attention will be paid&amp;mdash;has been, and will be, all summer, if the Spurs don&amp;rsquo;t hugely reverse course&amp;mdash;to De&amp;rsquo;Aaron Fox. The 28-year-old point guard is meant to be the wizened, guiding hand of this fresh group. At times he has been; usually, in these playoffs, the Spurs take better care of the ball when he&amp;rsquo;s healthy and on the floor, and they often generate better half-court offense when he&amp;rsquo;s got the ball as well. But in this potentially legacy-defining game, Fox was arguably the largest source of the Spurs&amp;rsquo; folly.
He is responsible for giving New York the extra chance they needed to finish their comeback. With 17 seconds left, Brunson missed a contested runner, and Fox did something shrewd: as the ball rebounded into traffic, he poked it boldly downcourt, and then utilized his elite speed to go get it before any of the Knicks running after it could. But that is where Fox&amp;rsquo;s presence of mind ended. His brain left the building with 13 seconds remaining. With no shot clock to play against, he went up for an unnecessary layup attempt on Anunoby&amp;mdash;who has averaged more than a block per game in the series, as Harper could certainly tell you.
Fox&amp;rsquo;s shot was denied, and then the rest quickly became history. History that will be spoken of for at least as long as it&amp;rsquo;s taken for a team as youthful as the Spurs to get this close to a championship. To win it, now, they have to come back from their 1-3 deficit; certainly not impossible, and not even all that improbable by modern NBA standards. The Philadelphia 76ers did it just a few weeks ago. And San Antonio has been leading every game of this series by double digits. Whether they can overcome their jitters enough to get the biggest trophy might be a wonder for next year, though. They&amp;rsquo;ve all but given us the 2026 answer to the question.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[John Wilmes]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:23:24 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/286030/The-Spurs-Are-Losing-Against-The-Knicks-And-Against-Themselves</guid>
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      <title>2026 NBA Finals, Game 4 Review: Mayhem At The Mecca</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/286023/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-4-Review-Mayhem-At-The-Mecca</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Rewatch this game in reverse chronological order like &quot;Memento&quot; to relive how this somehow improbably happened. It would be equally incomprehensible. The Spurs came out as a machine and felt completely invulnerable going into halftime. They wouldn&apos;t have to do much of anything to close out the two-game road sweep in New York and return to San Antonio with the series tied at 2-2 after leaving down 0-2. And they would be doing so preened and dictating the play on the court.
---
De&apos;Aaron Fox draws a foul on Karl-Anthony Towns aggressively driving to the basket on the first possession of the game.
Towns responds with a drive of his own as the Spurs swarm him.
After a Devin Vassell three-pointer, Towns gets Wembanyama on his hip from the free throw line and draws a foul that is challenged and overturned for Towns locking his arm.
Towns goes to the bench with his second foul and in comes Mitchell Robinson. The Knicks&apos; gameplan was clearly to feature Towns to start the game.
Vassell hits a three-pointer and then Julian Champagnie has a breakaway dunk on a steal off a Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson miscommunication. Spurs up 12-2. The fast early starts have been habitual.
OG Anunoby settles the Knicks with a corner three-pointer off a baseline out of bounds.
After a San Antonio miss, Hart pushes the ball in transition and goes into Champagnie for an and-1. With Anunoby&apos;s five points and the Hart three-point play, the Knicks cut the lead to 14-10 in a frantic start.
The Spurs whip the ball around with multiple drive and kicks by Dylan Harper and Vassell before finding Stephon Castle for a wide open three-pointer.
Vassell left wide open for a three-pointer on the next possession. Spurs up 22-10.
Victor Wembanyama gets in on the three-point shooting with one of his own. San Antonio has made five of their first six threes.
Wembanyama blocks a baseline drive from Brunson. On the next possession, Brunson gets all the way to the paint to meet Wembanyama again but finds Mikal Bridges for an open corner three-pointer.
Fox hits the next three-pointer. San Antonio&apos;s sixth of the quarter.
The referees miss an obvious goaltend on a Jose Alvarado layup that Luke Kornet interprets as a lob pass to Robinson. Wembanyama then has an offensive goaltend on his own miss that the referees also miss. Spurs up 32-17.
Anunoby attacks the rim and draws a delayed foul call to get to the line.
Spurs and Knicks oddly exchange defensive three-second technicals.
Wembanyama stood up multiple times on an iso by Robinson before eventually getting to his spot for a basket. Wembanyama then taunts Robinson on the way back and Robinson gives him a forearm above the neck, called for a flagrant 1. The NBA didn&apos;t upgrade Wembanyama throwing Brunson down by the head between Games 3 and 4 to a flagrant 1. This series has momentarily drifted away from basketball and the league has allowed it to happen with the way it has been officiated.&amp;nbsp;
Jeremy Sochan into the game at center in a true triage moment for the Knicks to close the first quarter, down 41-22.
---
Towns penetrates into the lane before the kickout to multiple passes before finding Anunoby for an open corner three-pointer as the second quarter begins.
Fox responds with a three-pointer as the Spurs continue their hot shooting.
Spurs make another three-pointer and then Alvarado is called for an away-from-the-ball foul grabbing Wembanyama&apos;s leg, upgraded to a flagrant upon review.
Brunson dribbles into Fox in transition to get to the basket with Wembanyama stuck on the other side of his teammate.
Harper makes another San Antonio three-pointer.
Carter Bryant makes another San Antonio three-pointer.
The Knicks are fighting like crazy to be down 54-30.
Champagnie makes another San Antonio three-pointer.
The Spurs are 11-for-16 from three just over three minutes into the second quarter.
Jordan Clarkson makes a transition layup and then Castle finds Bryant for a lob behind the Knicks&apos; defense.
Towns picks up his third foul on a loose ball rebound with 7:32 left in the second period.
Brunson gets a breakaway layup on the Spurs&apos; first turnover of the game, then another in transition as the Knicks go on their first mini-run. Spurs still up 59-38.
Harper penetrates into the lane for the bucket. Spurs up 66-40.
Harper hits a wing three-pointer as the Spurs&apos; offense continues to be unstoppable.
Harper with another bucket out of a broken play, picking the ball up knowing exactly where he is before spinning in the air and shooting. Harper&apos;s control and spatial awareness are remarkable.
Brunson finds his scoring to close out the second quarter but can&apos;t chip away at the lead. Harper hits a corner three-pointer that feels like a backbreaker into the closing minute of the half.
Spurs up 76-49 at halftime.
---
Castle picks up his fourth foul early in the third.
Wembanyama gets a flagrant 1 on an accidental elbow to Towns. This feels like it could be the only relevant event of the second half as he is now one flagrant foul point away from a suspension.
But the Knicks quickly cut the lead to 16 at 81-65 on a 13-0 run as the Spurs go cold on their threes.
Castle gets to the line drawing a foul on Hart to slow things down.
Brunson gets an acrobatic and-1 just inside the three-point line when he feels Harper on his back.
Harper gets to his spot powering into Anunoby, stopping on a dime for a turnaround jumper.
Brunson finds Robinson on a lob after a timeout to whittle the lead to 15.
Fox, Wembanyama and Wembanyama again miss three-pointers on a single possession. The Spurs were setting up their threes in the first half by aggressively driving into the paint, but now they are overrelying on them and settling.
Anunoby rims in a three-pointer to cut the lead to 15 inside a minute in the third. 90-75, which is how the quarter ends after both teams fail to score on their last possessions.
---
The Knicks win an out of bounds challenge at the start of the fourth to gain a possession.
Deuce McBride misses a corner three-pointer off the side of the backboard off a Wembanyama tip and then Harper scores in the halfcourt.
The Knicks have openings to make this truly a close game instead of a fake one, but Landry Shamet and Bridges continue to miss clean three-pointers.
Wembanyama gets a reverse tip back of his own second miss surrounded by Knicks.
Towns hits an off-balance end-of-shot-clock three-pointer going into the Spurs&apos; bench. 95-83. Towns hasn&apos;t been active on offense in this game until now, his first points in the fourth quarter of the series.
Anunoby makes his sixth three-pointer of the game. 97-86.
After a Harper turnover, Towns dribbles through Wembanyama out of the corner for a push shot on the edge of the paint. 97-88.
Regardless of the outcome, the Knicks have fought back from down 20-plus in the second half to give themselves a puncher&apos;s chance as the game winds down.
Towns draws Wembanyama out to the top of the key and Brunson drives and makes the runner. 99-92.
The Knicks put the Spurs in the blender again and find Anunoby for a corner three-pointer. 99-95.
Fox makes a huge three-pointer to stop the Knicks&apos; run.
Alvarado gets the Knicks back within five with the drive.
Wembanyama responds with a free throw line jumper.
Alvarado hits an open three-pointer. 104-100. Brown continues to stick with him instead of Bridges. Alvarado has changed the energy of the game and been a release valve for Brunson.
Fox misses a top-of-the-key three-pointer.
Brunson hits a deep three over Wembanyama. 104-103 Spurs.
Fox turns it over on a miscommunication with Wembanyama, stolen by Hart, which would have put the Knicks ahead, but Hart blows the breakaway layup hesitating between a dunk and a layup with Castle chasing him down.
Wembanyama gets to the line after being unable to finish the drive looking exhausted and misses both free throws.&amp;nbsp;
Brunson beats Castle to his spot into the paint and makes the jumper. Knicks ahead 105-104.&amp;nbsp;
Castle steps out of bounds on the baseline drive to give the Knicks back the ball.
The Knicks get a shot clock violation as the Spurs do an outstanding job denying Brunson the ball.
Mitch Johnson, after some apparent reluctance, calls a timeout with 38.8 seconds remaining to set up the Spurs&apos; offensive possession.
Fox misses his shot over Anunoby, but Castle sneaks past Hart for the offensive rebound and gets to the line. Castle ties it at 105-105 with his first free throw. Puts the Spurs ahead 106-105 with 30.3 remaining.
Brunson gets to work against Vassell but is forced to drive right into Wembanyama, who blocks his shot. The rebound gets tipped out to Fox for a breakaway he is unable to convert on the block from Anunoby.
After the timeout, Brunson has to attempt a desperation three-pointer over Wembanyama that he misses, but wisely goes early enough to give the Knicks a second chance with Anunoby sprinting into the lane after taking the ball out of bounds for the tip-in to complete the most improbable comeback in NBA Finals history. Wembanyama was pulled out to the perimeter to contest Brunson and not there to impede the free run of Anunoby.
Castle is unable to get a shot off ahead of the buzzer on a busted play and Wembanyama immediately goes over to lift him up.
The winner of this game, regardless of who it was, would become the favorite to win the series.
The Spurs have a chance to make it a series once again trailing the Knicks 3-1. They were playing unnecessarily fast and loose in the second half with a huge lead they had become too arrogant to protect.
---
Amid the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors a few months ago, I realized it would not make sense for the Knicks to trade Anunoby to the Bucks for him, even straight up. Anunoby with his role on both ends of the floor and his three-point shooting, especially from the corners, fits perfectly on the Knicks as a force multiplier in a way that couldn&apos;t be matched even by a superior individual talent in Antetokounmpo. Anunoby quietly fills in every gap in every facet.
---
As singular as Game 4 feels within the history of the league, this game will dwell in our collective memory for years and become tangibly more mythical. Game 7 of 2016 had the same instantaneous weight and growing legend over time. Game 6 in 1998. Game 1 in 1991. Game 7 in 1980.
The Spurs presumably win some titles even if they lose this one and that will became part of this story.
The way the MSG crowd lingered en masse in the aftermath was unprecedented. It became a pre-championship party without the confetti, champagne and multi-year reflections. There is no finality. A celebration of an unpredictable evening.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christopher Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:30:29 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/286023/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-4-Review-Mayhem-At-The-Mecca</guid>
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      <title>2026 NBA Finals, Game 1 Review: Skyscrapers Scraping Together</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285922/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-1-Review-Skyscrapers-Scraping-Together</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals acknowledged the hype and exceeded it as a theatrical event even if it was shockingly the original unicorn (Karl-Anthony Towns) that outperformed the anointed and undisputed one (Victor Wembanyama).
This is memory holed by many of us as we&apos;ve come to expect uneven and irresponsible play on defense in contrast to his perimeter shooting and inconsistent off-the-dribble game, but after both his rookie season and his second season, Towns was voted by NBA general managers as the player they&apos;d pick to build a franchise around. This was in 2016 and 2017. LeBron James and Kevin Durant existed then. Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo would soon win multiple MVPs apiece. It was never as emphatic as the 83 percent of the vote Wembanyama received before this season in the survey, but there was a consensus back then that Towns had the opportunity to be a truly special and completely unprecedented all-time talent.
Towns was salary dumped by the Minnesota Timberwolves to the New York Knicks on the eve of the 2024-25 season as a consequence of a small market unloading a supermax contract ahead of truly consequential second apron and luxury tax concerns.
---
Brunson and Wembanyama both looked dazed and shellshocked walking through their respective tunnels after the Knicks&apos; 105-95 win at the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1. Wembanyama was shaking his head disappointed by his performance in the loss. Brunson walked through the same tunnel a few hours earlier after Harrison Barnes landed on his knee, presumably surprised he was now walking back without limping and victorious in Game 1.&amp;nbsp;
---
Brunson and Wembanyama each attempted and swished their first shot of the game on the opening possessions of their respective teams, but scoring would soon become far more challenging in what was an intense and physical Game 1 where the referees allowed ample amounts of contact. It wasn&apos;t as savagely dangerous as Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, but it was appropriately frenzied and elevated for what we want when the stakes are this high.
The Knicks begin the game prioritizing spacing the floor and getting the ball into the paint to challenge Wembanyama even if it is to set up the kick out. Josh Hart charges hard at him in transition and goes into his body, but Wembanyama still blocks it off the backboard.
Towns shows no fear almost halfway through the first quarter and dribbles past Wembanyama from the top of the key for a layup. Mike Brown&apos;s game plan is to force Wembanyama to defend the entire halfcourt and not merely roam around like a 7&apos;4&quot; free safety, sending the Knicks&apos; offense on constant u-turns when getting into the paint.
The game slows with errant perimeter shooting deeper into the first quarter. Dylan Harper takes control. Steal into a breakaway dunk attempt that Mikal Bridges breaks up. Harper makes both free throws. Strong and-1 for Harper. Corner three for Harper. A 12-0 Spurs run.
The Spurs ended the first quarter on a 20-5 run as Brunson limped to the locker room with a knee injury. How bad is the injury? Is the series effectively over 12 minutes in?
At the start of the second quarter, Wembanyama blocks Towns on a drive from behind, gets the ball first before his arm, a no-call, similar to a tackle in soccer where the defender&apos;s foot gets the ball cleanly before the contact. Jose Alvarado gets to the glass on a baseline reverse. Wembanyama blocks it. Goaltend. Towns gets to the bucket past Wembanyama again. Towns is not deterred at all by Wembanyama. There&apos;s a fearlessness to the Knicks&apos; strategy, similar to the Wolves in the second round against the Spurs, that Wembanyama can&apos;t block every attempt and that he will be exhausted by the end of the game if he tries. Wembanyama looked fatigued at times in Game 1. The effort showed.&amp;nbsp;
Brunson returns and eschews a knee brace, then quickly picks up an ankle injury, stays in the game and steadies the New York offense. Brunson opening his bag in the halfcourt as Carter Bryant begins to try to wear him out picking him up full court.
Julian Champagnie goes on a three-point barrage to end the first half and give the Spurs enough offense to supplement Harper, finishing five-for-six from three at halftime. San Antonio is up 55-48 at halftime.&amp;nbsp;
To begin the second half, Wembanyama completely discombobulates the Knicks&apos; offense and the Spurs should have pulled away for good up 13, but New York found a rhythm getting into the lane once Wembanyama went to the bench.
The Knicks find the ease of scoring against Luke Kornet instead of Wembanyama. Brunson ties the game at 71-71 with a midrange jumper on the next possession after Wembanyama was called for an illegal screen on the defensive end.
Wembanyama drives and dunks with his left on a two-for-one as the third winds down. Deuce McBride ties it at 76-76 banking a corner three.
Of all the Knicks, OG Anunoby showed signs of unease sizing up Wembanyama early in the game, but he made a pair of big corner threes to start the fourth with Brunson on the bench.
Brunson inside-outside dribble to finish at the basket in transition. Knicks up six just under seven minutes. Mitch Johnson calls timeout.
Fan runs on the court for a selfie with Wembanyama. Spurs miss a three. Brunson drives into a layup in a halfcourt set with Mitchell Robinson setting a Gortat seal screen.
The Knicks extend their lead to 94-86. Elbow three from Wembanyama makes it 94-89 with 4:48 left.
Wembanyama hits the side of the backboard on a drive, then the top of the backboard on a corner three on a single possession that ends with Champagnie making one of two free throws after being fouled at the end of the shot clock.
The Knicks&apos; offense continues to constrict and clamp the Spurs. Wembanyama drives into the chest of Towns for an and-1. 94-93 Knicks.
Brunson misses a pair of good looks. Wembanyama fouled on a lob attempt. Spurs regain the lead 95-94 after he makes both.
Brunson gets a corner three off an offensive rebound he tipped out just inside two minutes. Go-ahead basket for the Knicks. Fox clanks a clean look off the back of the rim.
The Spurs hard double Brunson on the next possession for the first time all game. He finds Mikal Bridges cutting to the right elbow. Fouled by Fox. Knicks extend the lead to 99-95.
Inside a minute, Wembanyama dribbles off his foot from the right wing. Hart steals it. Brunson gets to his spot on an iso, clean swish from about 18 feet against Vassell. Knicks up six.
Wembanyama misses a trail three similar to the one he made in Game 1 at the Thunder and there will be no overtime. The Spurs never score again after Brunson&apos;s three-pointer gave the Knicks the lead.
---
Towns is now unburdened by the expectations of his early career. He played freely in Game 1, which he calmly and eloquently attributed postgame to feeling the joy of playing the game as he did as a kid, and feeling his late mother&apos;s presence in the stands.
Towns was the complete opposite in Game 1 of Chet Holmgren, another unicorn big, who played with zero force and completely lacking in confidence by the end of the West Finals. Holmgren has the skill-set to approximate for the Thunder what the Knicks received in Game 1 from Towns.&amp;nbsp;
There are adjustments for Mitch Johnson to make, especially around how the Spurs generate their looks on offense. But Towns is a particularly challenging matchup for Wembanyama on both sides of the floor, and that will remain a constant as long as he continues playing disciplined basketball that was informed by the struggles of life experiences he has accrued as a 30-year-old who was at one brief time the next one for this league. You can rely on me.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christopher Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:55:29 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285922/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-1-Review-Skyscrapers-Scraping-Together</guid>
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      <title>2026 NBA Finals, Game 2 Review: Collective Stars In The Blurry Sky</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285952/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-2-Review-Collective-Stars-In-The-Blurry-Sky</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The New York Knicks are on an unprecedented run winning their 13th straight game and taking a 2-0 series lead over the San Antonio Spurs. The run is one taken collectively by a starting five that plays without ego. A run taken collectively by a bench that consistently contributes. And perhaps most importantly, a run taken collectively by a fan base that defines the culture of the team, and a team that uniquely adds to the tapestry of its city. Every team in every city helps define it, but none quite like the Knicks in New York.&amp;nbsp;
---
After winning the opening tip of Game 2, the Spurs run a set designed to get Victor Wembanyama a chance to drive to the basket from the top of the key and dumps it off to Stephon Castle, who finds Devin Vassel back in the space at the top of the key that Wembanyama vacated for an open three-pointer.
Another three-pointer after a drive and kick for Julian Champagnie. Champagnie banks in a corner three-pointer. The Spurs have been unbeatable when hitting three-pointers.
The Spurs are playing at a frenetic pace on defense to speed up the Knicks and exhaust Jalen Brunson. San Antonio is bringing the same energy to Game 2 of the Finals as they did Game 3 of the West Finals when they went up big against the Thunder before running out of energy and losing 123-108.
Wembanyama dunk down the lane gives the Spurs a 15-10 lead, but a Stephon Castle miss leads to a Brunson three-pointer.
Towns picks up an ill-advised foul going for a 50/50 ball on an inbound pass competing against Luke Kornet.
Dylan Harper dunks in the halfcourt as he continues to be the most reliable generator of offense for the Spurs in the Finals.
Towns hits a wide open three-pointer. Towns drives past Kornet soon after for an easy layup.
The Knicks are going to win the minutes when Wembanyama is off the floor, so it&apos;s merely a matter of by how many.
The frenetic pace slows as the Spurs begin intentionally fouling Mitchell Robinson. The Spurs don&apos;t have to play defense without Wembanyama on the floor and it also extends the real time duration of his rest.
San Antonio extends their lead to 31-21 with Fox finishing a fastbreak on a pass from Vassell, initiated by a Harper rebound.
Wembanyama drives from the left wing off a shot fake as the Spurs go up nine, 34-25, to end the first quarter.
---
Towns slams home on a baseline drive in the vicinity of Wembanyama and yells at him in celebration. Towns with another bucket on a mismatch.
After De&amp;rsquo;Aaron Fox hooks Hart&apos;s arm with the referees letting it go, he drives to the hoop against McBride and converts the and-1.
Towns draws the entire Spurs&amp;rsquo; defense, but finds Bridges for a kickout three-pointer.
After the timeout, the Spurs swing the ball to Harper in the right corner for an easy reverse layup.
OG Anunoby blocks a Harper challenge at the basket in transition following a Kornet steal on a Brunson kickout and it leads to an easy Bridges three-pointer going the other way.
Hart receives a flagrant 1 after tripping Vassell fighting for a loose ball.
Referee Josh Tiven issues a technical on Robinson as he and Wembanyama fight for position on a Spurs inbound. The technical will likely be rescinded.&amp;nbsp;
Wembanyama gets to the line off a lob when Anunoby fouls him to prevent an easy dunk. Wembanyama has yet to assert himself in the game. Spurs up 48-44.
Bridges barely beats the shot clock with a corner three-pointer following multiple drive and kicks from the Knicks. After another San Antonio miss, Shamet drives from the left corner and the Knicks take a 49-48 lead.
Vassell hits a three and is fouled by Brunson for a four-point play.
Brunson drives for a layup with Wembanyama away from the paint. The Spurs have been trying to avoid dragging Wembanyama out of the play, but the Knicks went empty side to adjust.
Wembanyama mental fatigue turnover on a backcourt pass. Another turnover on a pass by Wembanyama.
Towns hits a corner three-pointer as the Knicks go up 56-52. Fox misses at the buzzer. The Knicks were down 12 in the first half, but go into halftime up four. A 16-point swing.
---
Coming out of halftime, Towns outduels Wembanyama for an offensive rebound and a basket. Coming out of a timeout to stop a Knicks run, Bridges forces a backcourt violation.
Tony Brothers calling two questionable fouls on Towns get him out of the game with the Knicks up 72-62, and the Spurs proceed to go on a mini-run. But Bridges and Anunoby steady the Knicks with their scoring.
Robinson finishes a lob in the vicinity of Wembanyama on a two-for-one at the end of the third. Wembanyama responds with a nice bucket in the halfcourt.
Knicks go into the fourth quarter with an 84-75 lead.
---
&quot;A lot of our mistakes are coming from not being convicted enough in our decisions,&quot; Mitch Johnson tells Lisa Salters before the start of the fourth quarter.
The Knicks take a 12-point lead with 11:00 left in the fourth after grabbing two offensive rebounds, Shamet making the third attempt.
Wembanyama hits a three-pointer on the next possession.
Castle gets an easy dunk on a baseline out of bounds.
Wembanyama block.
Fox gets into Brunson&apos;s face with the Spurs trailing 87-80 with 9:35 left in the fourth. Rick Brunson comes down the court to intervene and continues to warn off Fox. This isn&amp;rsquo;t going to truly rattle Brunson, but the Knicks shots are slightly on tilt afterwards. Between the questionable fouls on Towns in the third and this moment, the Knicks&amp;rsquo; composure is being challenged.
Wembanyama can&apos;t convert a lob.
Shamet hits a swing, swing corner three-pointer.
Wembanyama can&apos;t convert the ATO layup. On the Knicks&apos; next possession, Anunoby drives past Wembanyama from the corner and wisely slows at the basket to get him on his body, negating his shot-blocking ability, and finishes the dunk.
Fox hits a stepback three-pointer with 5:26 left to cut the lead to 97-88. Fox drives and scores from the lane to cut it to 97-90. Bridges misses a three-pointer. Wembanyama scores as the Spurs extend their run to 9-0. Score 97-92. Fox is playing with more force and confidence in Game 2.
Wembanyama blocks Brunson on the next possession. Vassell hits a quick three-pointer. New York lead cut to two.
Brunson with another bad miss on a three-pointer. Bridges with a great steal into a fastbreak that the Spurs close down on, kicks to Brunson, who misses the wide open three.
Harper ties it driving into the paint against Brunson.
The Knicks challenge a Brothers no-call on an Anunoby three-point attempt and it&apos;s overturned with 2:37 left. Anunoby makes all three free throws.
Fox dribbles through the Knicks trap and finds Wembanyama for a lob.
Brunson hits a layup on a baseline out of bounds give and go.
Wembanyama air balls a corner three-pointer.
Harper drives and Towns is too late getting to the ball off the glass and goaltends. Score goes to 102-101 in favor of the Knicks.
Bridges loses the ball on a drive. Harper takes it on the fastbreak and finds Wembanyama trailing, who converts the and-1 to take a 104-102 lead for the Spurs.
Brunson ties it from the right elbow, getting to his spot with the fadeaway jumper, 39.3 left in the fourth. 104-104.
Wembanyama misses from the Finals logo on the left side of the floor. Knicks fight for the defensive rebound.
Brunson misses his shot over Wembanyama, a clean look.
Wembanyama passes the ball off Castle&apos;s back on the outlet after the rebound. Brunson gets the steal and is fouled in the chaos of the broken play with 9.4 seconds remaining.
Brunson makes the first free throw, but misses the second. The Spurs get the highly contested loose ball rebound and call timeout with 7.5 seconds left.
Fox gets the inbound pass, waits a couple beats for Wembanyama to set a screen, dribbles from right to left before feeding Wembanyama for a jumper just beyond the right elbow that Robinson contests. Wembanyama misses. Game over.
---
13 wins ago, the Knicks changed their offense to run more of the offense through Towns as a hub. As it was gaining momentum, Brunson was asked about the adjustment, especially that some stars might push back against it.
&amp;ldquo;One, I&amp;rsquo;m not a star,&amp;rdquo; Brunson said. &amp;ldquo;Two, I want to win.&amp;rdquo;
Space is tough to come by in New York. It is both a feature and a bug. If it happens, there is not enough space for an NBA championship to be personal to the point of detachment from everyone else for the Knicks. It has to be a shared experience.
Despite their overwhelming star power, Steve Kerr insisted upon &quot;Strength in Numbers&quot; to be the Golden State Warriors&apos; guiding principle. Mike Brown transformed his coaching style following his time as an assistant coach with the Warriors and that has similarly been applied perfectly to the Knicks, who continue to get stronger as these playoffs continue.
--
Wembanyama spoke postgame about feeling &quot;blurry.&quot; He survived the intensity of a seven-game series against the Thunder, but has played without the same confidence and freedom against the Knicks. There is still plenty of time for the Spurs, but only if it starts in Game 3 on Monday.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christopher Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:55:15 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285952/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-2-Review-Collective-Stars-In-The-Blurry-Sky</guid>
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      <title>2026 NBA Finals, Game 3 Review: San Antonio&apos;s Collaborative Effort</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285992/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-3-Review-San-Antonios-Collaborative-Effort</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The San Antonio Spurs arrived to a New York City anticipating a coronation for the Knicks on Monday and Wednesday and picked up a team win, a Mitch Johnson coaching win, a Stephon Castle early hot start win, a Victor Wembanyama not settling win, a Dylan Harper scoring and defending win, and a De&apos;Aaron Fox creating and closing win.
The Spurs had a clear gameplan mandate, learning from the mistakes of the first two games of the Finals as they were aggressive in getting into the paint and playing from the inside out instead of outside in.
---
Wembanyama passes up a wide open three-pointer from the right wing to penetrate into the paint.
On the third possession, penetration from Castle and a second-side attack from Fox leads to an easy Wembanyama lob dunk.
Wembanyama then gets the seal on Anunoby for an easy dunk.
The Knicks have two turnovers and a block by Wembanyama on a Mikal Bridges three-pointer before a Devin Vassell three-pointer makes it 7-0.
Josh Hart gets the Knicks&apos; first points with a three-pointer.
Castle beats Bridges for an and-1 as the Spurs continue to emphasize dribble penetration to begin the game.
Brunson gets his first basket of the game backing down Castle, needing multiple pivots before shooting over both him and Wembanyama on the help.
Hart makes another three-pointer. Wembanyama quickly responds with a slow shot fake from the right wing before driving for the and-1 on Anunoby.
Dylan Harper checks in and gets to the basket for a layup in the halfcourt.
Brunson misses a top-of-the-arc three-pointer over Wembanyama, who has impacted virtually every Knicks miss so far.
Anunoby beats Wembanyama down the floor for the dunk in transition.
Wembanyama throws Brunson down by the neck on a screen. Brunson gets up and into Wembanyama&apos;s face, who laughs him off. The referees completely miss the exchange.
Kornet barrels over Hart trying to take the ball out of bounds following a layup. Hart responds by shoving him and gets called for a technical.
Harper extends tall with a two-handed power dunk over Anunoby.
Champagnie hits a three-pointer to extend the Spurs&apos; lead to 33-21 approaching one minute left in the first quarter.
Wembanyama passes up a three-pointer with time winding down to drive to the basket. He loses the ball and doesn&apos;t get a shot off, but it is a continuation of the aggressiveness the Spurs displayed in the opening 12 minutes.
---
Alvarado drives and finishes over the Wembanyama contest to open the second quarter.
Fox drives and kicks for a corner three-pointer from Carter Bryant.
Alvarado scores over Wembanyama again. Jordan Clarkson hits a corner three-pointer as the Knicks continue to score without Brunson on the floor.
Towns dribbles into Fox under control and shoots over him to cut the lead to 40-35.
On the next possession, Towns strips Castle and the ball ends up with Anunoby for a wide open three-pointer. 40-38 Spurs.
Castle drives to the paint, decelerates like Luka Doncic and uses his strength and control to score, ending the Knicks&apos; run. Castle already has 13 points.
Towns blows by the newly checked-in Kornet out of the midpost for an easy bucket.
Clarkson gets a steal but throws it away to Castle and Towns picks up his second foul on the and-1.
Brunson back in the game and scores an acrobatic layup.
Harper responds with one of his own. Harper has the second-generation NBA player maturity and poise of Brunson, the footwork and craft, plus the length and athletic explosion where his career outcome is scary.
Castle drives, fumbles the ball but fights through the contest of Hart and Anunoby to score in the paint.
Anunoby creates space at the end of the shot clock against Harper for the corner three-pointer. Anunoby blocks the Harper drive on the next possession.
The Knicks swing the ball to Brunson, who shoots over Wembanyama for the three-pointer on the right wing.
Wembanyama responds with a three-pointer of his own, his first of the game.
Fox drives into the paint and finds Wembanyama for the lob with the Knicks playing Anunoby at center and decidedly lacking size.
Castle runs through Brunson on an offensive rebound attempt that is reviewed for a hostile act, but the referees determine it is a common foul.
Knicks take the lead just over 1:00 remaining in the second quarter with a Hart three-pointer. 59-57 Knicks.
The Knicks swing the ball around, put the Spurs in a blender before it ends up with Brunson shooting another three-pointer over Wembanyama to go up 62-57.
After a Fox miss, Brunson penetrates and lays it off to Towns, who gets Wembanyama up in the air on the shot fake to draw the foul. Wembanyama falls to the ground and MSG begins an &quot;F--- you Wemby&quot; chant.
Wembanyama misses the fadeaway jumper to end the half. Knicks outscored the Spurs 42-24 in the quarter.
---
With the third quarter underway, Champagnie hits a three-pointer and is fouled by Brunson, upgraded to a flagrant one as he lands on the back of his shoe. Castle misses a wide open three-pointer, missing the chance for a seven-point possession.
Anunoby helps the Knicks gang-rebound a Spurs miss by getting in Wembanyama&apos;s way, then gets an easy dunk on a delayed trail with the lane wide open.
As the game slows and the Spurs make Brunson work for everything in the halfcourt, he drives into Fox for an and-1.
Wembanyama hits an easy 16-foot jumper out of a short roll with Fox.
Harper sprints the court in transition off a Wembanyama rebound and finds Vassell for a wide open three-pointer to retake the lead at 72-71.
Hart hits a corner three-pointer over a Wembanyama closeout on a pass from Brunson.
On consecutive possessions, Wembanyama fakes a three-pointer and passes to Keldon Johnson for an easy bucket, then hits a 30-foot three-pointer to extend the Spurs&apos; lead to 79-76.
Brunson picks up his fourth foul reaching in on Harper with 4:29 remaining in the third, Spurs leading 81-78.
Harper big-bodies Towns on the drive. Spurs go up 84-81.
Alvarado collapses the defense late in the shot clock to set up a Shamet corner three-pointer. Harper responds by finding Champagnie out of the corner at the top of the arc.
Towns is surrounded by the Spurs after picking up his dribble and Clarkson escapes beyond the arc to hit a three-pointer as the shot clock expires. Tied at 89-89.
Harper hits a three-pointer to go back up by three.
Bridges gets into the lane for a bucket. Knicks down one, 92-91.
---
After a pair of Knicks fouls, the Spurs close the first possession of the fourth with Wembanyama finishing a lob dunk from Castle.
With the Spurs up 96-91 and 9:18 left, Brunson checks back in with four fouls after an extended rest.
Champagnie finds Johnson for an easy halfcourt layup. Spurs up 98-91.
Brunson scores on the Knicks&apos; next possession as they finally score in the fourth, nearly four minutes into the quarter.
New York picks up their fifth foul of the quarter and sends Wembanyama to the line with 8:10 remaining.
Wembanyama hits a three-pointer initially called with a foul on Robinson, but Mike Brown successfully challenges that Johnson pushed Robinson into him to eliminate the three points.
Brunson then turns the corner on Wembanyama and knifes through for a layup. 100-95 Spurs.
Mitch Johnson has a successful challenge of his own, overturning a ball called out of bounds off Wembanyama, reassessed as a foul on Towns for locking Wembanyama&apos;s arm. Wembanyama goes to the line for two.
The Spurs have received little scoring from Fox, but he hits an inside-outside dribble drive to put the Spurs up 104-97.
On an offensive rebound off a bad Towns three-pointer, Brunson grabs it and is fouled by Vassell for an and-1.
Fox finds Wembanyama on an alley-oop tap in traffic with the Knicks surrounding him.
After another call overturned in favor of the Knicks, the Spurs disrupt attempts to get Towns the ball in the middle of the floor and New York ends up passing around to Shamet, who drives against Wembanyama late in the shot clock and gets blocked against the backboard. The Spurs have been forcing Brunson into dribbling against overwhelming defensive intensity and aren&apos;t allowing Towns to be the distributor he&apos;s been during the Knicks&apos; playoff run. Brunson has been playing into it in this game as he was in the first two games and got away with it.
Wembanyama misses a three-pointer. Harper wins the offensive rebound and finds Wembanyama again for a drive but misses the layup that would have put them up 110-100 under 4:00.
Brunson draws a foul to bring the Knicks within six.
Fox turns the ball over passing up a three-pointer as he falls on a drive.
At the end of a scrappy possession in which Towns is blocked twice, Brunson hits a jumper out of a baseline out of bounds. 108-104.
Vassell hits a clutch three-pointer at the end of the shot clock. 111-104 under 2:00.
Harper misses a wide open three-pointer that would have sealed it. Anunoby drives into Wembanyama to get to the line just under 1:00 left and makes one of two. 111-105.
Harper misses another three-pointer.
Brunson makes his three-pointer. 111-108.
Fox gets to his spot near the free throw line against Anunoby. 113-108 with 12.2 remaining.
Anunoby makes a quick three-pointer after the timeout. 113-111.
Castle makes both free throws. Spurs win 115-111.
---
The framework of how the Spurs will contend over the coming years was on full display in Game 3. It won&apos;t strictly be the singularity of Wembanyama.&amp;nbsp;
San Antonio entered the series as favorites and played with the urgency of underdogs down 0-2. It took longer than it should have for the Spurs to get over the emotional win against the Thunder in Game 7. That&apos;s done now that they&apos;ve bounced back from two heartbreaking losses with a sterling win. The Knicks were expected to win the series after taking the first two and now the Spurs are unburdened from their own expectations.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christopher Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:54:59 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285992/2026-NBA-Finals-Game-3-Review-San-Antonios-Collaborative-Effort</guid>
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      <title>$.05 After The Myles Garrett, A.J. Brown Trades</title>
      <link>https://football.realgm.com/analysis/3694/$05-After-The-Myles-Garrett-AJ-Brown-Trades</link>
      <description><![CDATA[$01--The NFL often lags behind the other major sports in terms of blockbuster trades, but last Monday showed the league is itching to catch up. The biggest splash of what&amp;rsquo;s been an eventful offseason came with the surprising news that the Cleveland Browns have traded Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Verse and a series of draft picks.&amp;nbsp;Garrett is the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, setting the league record for sacks in a season in 2025. Put simply, Garrett is the best football player on the planet regardless of position and remains an athletic superfreak at 30. Players like him are almost never really available to acquire. Few teams have the ability to offer fair trade compensation and also absorb Garrett&amp;rsquo;s astronomical, four-year, $160 million contract he signed to remain in Cleveland a little over a calendar year ago.&amp;nbsp;As recently as the NFL Scouting Combine at the beginning of March, the Browns were not interested in dealing Garrett. Several sources have confirmed that Cleveland management was in a state of listening but not engaging as a default mode when other teams called about Garrett&amp;rsquo;s availability. With Garrett in some control of his own destiny with a no-trade clause, all that other teams could do was let the Browns know of their interest and the relative compensation that might be asked for.&amp;nbsp;Then the dynamics changed. Maybe Garrett came to accept that the Browns, while improving, still aren&amp;rsquo;t close to being a viable contender. At 30, his window to win is shrinking. Perhaps Garrett sided with Browns fans who are largely aghast that new head coach Todd Monken is grooming the team around disgraced QB Deshaun Watson, who is about as well-received with local fans as Lizzo opening up Hellfest.&amp;nbsp;The Rams are clearly the Super Bowl favorites now. With all the aggressive moves to capitalize on the very end of Matthew Stafford&amp;rsquo;s illustrious career, they should be. While one move had nothing to do with the other, the fact the Eagles--one of the other primary contenders--dealt away their best wide receiver, A.J. Brown, in the same hour reinforces the notion that the Rams wear the offseason crown.&amp;nbsp;Will that mean the Rams and McVay win another Super Bowl? Possibly. They are closer to that goal now that they have Garrett than they were a week ago, and didn&amp;rsquo;t have to sacrifice anything on-field in 2026 to make it happen. On paper, GM Les Snead and the Rams have done their best to be the top team entering the season.&amp;nbsp;Fans of other contenders can point to the incredibly top-heavy nature of the L.A. roster, their almost laughable depth across the defense and offensive line, and the aging status of Stafford, Davante Adams and other key pieces, Garrett included. The Rams are far from inevitable champs, but it&amp;rsquo;s very easy to admire how aggressive they are in chasing their lofty goal.&amp;nbsp;$02--Outside of the AFC and NFC East media phone booths, the A.J. Brown trade largely got lost in the waves of the Garrett deal. But it might be just as significant a move.&amp;nbsp;Brown&amp;rsquo;s move from the Philadelphia Eagles to New England Patriots is a major deal for both teams. For the Eagles, they gave away their best playmaking weapon at receiver, a reliable producer at all levels of the field. In 2025, a down year by his standards, Brown still hauled in 78 passes for 1,003 yards and seven TDs in 15 games. The 29-year-old (later this month) Brown has led the Eagles in targets in each of the last three seasons, topping the team in yards and TDs in two (not the same) of those three years, barely behind Devonta Smith in the one year he wasn&amp;rsquo;t the leader.&amp;nbsp;The Eagles did prepare for this long-rumored trade fairly well. Drafting Makai Lemon in the first round and adding a quality, versatile vet in Dontayvion Wicks is a decent hedge for Philly, but neither is the physical YAC dynamo that Brown has been since arriving from Tennessee. His ability to create yards after the catch, his power in separating from bigger DBs and his ability to win all over the field at various depths made Brown an elite receiver. Lemon has definite potential, but he&amp;rsquo;s yet to play an NFL snap.&amp;nbsp;The Eagles and GM Howie Roseman have thrived at knowing when to move on from a high-performing player, and they&amp;rsquo;re hoping Brown is the next example. This is one decision they can&amp;rsquo;t miss upon, however.&amp;nbsp;In New England, Brown succeeds Stefon Diggs at the top of the receiving depth chart. They&amp;rsquo;re different types of receivers, and Brown&amp;rsquo;s style and steadiness appear to be a better fit around Drake Maye and the rest of the Patriots offense. Brown&amp;rsquo;s works inside-to-outside routes as well as anyone in the league, and that&amp;rsquo;s an area where the Patriots and Maye needed to get better. He&amp;rsquo;s a reliable hands-catcher who can get open with both strength and route precision.For a first-round pick in 2028 and a fifth-rounder in 2027 as well, it&amp;rsquo;s a savvy investment for New England. If he and Maye click--and there&amp;rsquo;s no reason to think they won&amp;rsquo;t--Brown is an impactful addition in 2026. There were considerable doubts about the Patriots&amp;rsquo; ability to repeat as AFC champs after a surprising, meteoric rise a year ago. Brown quiets some of that skepticism. He doesn&amp;rsquo;t come without some risk and some significant long-term cost, but GM Eliot Wolf is smart to try and strike while his iron is hot in what looks to be a winnable AFC.&amp;nbsp;$03--The Chicago Bears certainly appear hellbent on moving to Indiana. The team announced on Friday that it will push forward with a plan to relocate to Hammond, Indiana.&amp;nbsp;Previously, the Bears had been strongly linked to a site near O&amp;rsquo;Hare Airport at the old Arlington Raceway horse track northwest of the downtown Chicago area. But political footballs and actual footballs have failed to reconcile to deliver the desired result of keeping the Bears in Illinois.&amp;nbsp;Bring on the Indiana Bears!Geographically speaking, Hammond is only about 30 miles southeast of Soldier Field in downtown Chicago. It&amp;rsquo;s definitively part of the greater Chicago metro area, as is nearly all of Northwest Indiana--a broad swath of counties roughly west of South Bend and north of Lafayette. Practically speaking, it can be--can be--a significant trip.&amp;nbsp;As an example, I live about 55 miles into the state of Michigan in the southwest corner of the state. It&amp;rsquo;s 121 miles from my front door to Hammond, a drive that typically takes a little under two hours and can be done in an hour and 40 minutes (I drive playing offense, not defense). I&amp;rsquo;ve made the drive from various points around Chicago through Hammond on my way home. It can take 30 minutes from downtown, but it often takes triple that. From I-88 and Highland in Downers Grove, a 41-mile distance, I have never made that trip in less than 75 minutes, thanks to incessant Chicago traffic and construction. I&amp;rsquo;ve made that trip at least 40 times in the last 25 years, including several on Sundays. From the more northwestern reaches of Chicago, places like Grayslake and (ahem) Arlington Heights, it can be a longer round-trip commute than it is for me in Holland, Michigan, to go and see Da Bears.&amp;nbsp;Of course, the Bears have apparently left the door cracked for the politicians in Illinois to keep the team at Arlington. But it also feels like too many bluffs have been called on both sides. No matter how it plays out, this particular Bears team doesn&amp;rsquo;t need the extraneous drama. It&amp;rsquo;s a young team with an intense, sometimes frustratingly obtuse, and inexperienced head coach. There is a lot of talent with the Bears, and that talent will travel across state lines, like it or not, Chicago. Based on the local reaction in greater Chicago, they don&amp;rsquo;t like it one bit.&amp;nbsp;$04--Quick Hits--Packers star EDGE Micah Parsons revealed that he won&amp;rsquo;t be ready for the start of the 2026 season. Parsons, one of the league&amp;rsquo;s best pass rushers and all-around defensive menaces, tore his ACL and meniscus in late December. Despite contrary cocksure confidence from Packers faithful and media, Parsons acknowledged he won&amp;rsquo;t be ready to even practice before the end of September. That&amp;rsquo;s a massive blow to the Packers, who already had something of a net loss offseason.&amp;nbsp;--The Packers did their best to distract attention away from the negative by signing wideout Christian Watson to a four-year extension worth $110.5 million. That&amp;rsquo;s an astronomical payday for Watson, who has never topped 41 catches or 620 yards in any of his four injury-plagued NFL seasons. To put it into perspective, Watson is making just $2.5 million per year less than Lions All-Pro Amon-Ra St. Brown, whose career average is more than double Watson&amp;rsquo;s production in every single season. Watson&amp;rsquo;s a good player, but that\&apos;s a massive reach with his extension. Bad week for Green Bay&amp;hellip;--I&amp;rsquo;m very early in summer scouting for the 2027 NFL Draft, but I can already identify six QBs who should wind up (at their current status) grading higher in 2027 than Ty Simpson did for me in 2026. Simpson was the 13th overall pick by the Rams in 2026.&amp;nbsp;The six, in no particular order:&amp;bull; Arch Manning&amp;bull; Darian Mensah&amp;bull; Dante Moore&amp;bull; CJ Carr&amp;bull; Drew Mestermaker&amp;bull; CJ BaileyThat should provide a glimpse at how potentially awesome the 2027 NFL Draft will be. Potentially&amp;hellip;--The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, has denied Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby&amp;rsquo;s appeal to play for the Red Raiders in 2026. It stems from his time at Indiana (before he transferred to Cincinnati), when Sorsby gambled on his own team despite being a redshirt who wasn&amp;rsquo;t playing. That means Sorsby could be in the NFL Supplemental Draft this summer, pending some court battles.&amp;nbsp;I don&amp;rsquo;t mind one bit the NCAA enforcing standards, even if they&amp;rsquo;re antiquated. However, ESPN rolled directly from the news about Sorsby effectively being expelled from college football for gambling into an ad break where three of the four ad spots were gambling entities in one form or another. To quote the great Aussie prog metal band Twelve Foot Ninja, &amp;ldquo;that&amp;rsquo;s the sound of one hand killing.&amp;rdquo;$.05--The French Open is always a great watch, something my wife and I genuinely enjoy together as people who primarily work from home. Live, high-level sports during the weekday are a godsend, and the French Open is such a unique tennis major with the clay surface.&amp;nbsp;This year&amp;rsquo;s French Open was a lesson in chaos. Fun chaos, the kind of &amp;ldquo;wow&amp;rdquo; that is why so many of us love sports.&amp;nbsp;Unless you are an avid tennis fan, pretty much every player you&amp;rsquo;ve ever heard of was out before the end of the second round on both the men&amp;rsquo;s and women&amp;rsquo;s sides. Some were injuries, some were upsets, but it made the draw completely insane. Imagine a March Madness where seven of the eight 1 and 2 seeds are gone by the end of the first weekend. That was Roland Garros in the last fortnight.&amp;nbsp;A qualifier, Maja Chwalinska, made it all the way to the women&amp;rsquo;s final. Along the way to Saturday&amp;rsquo;s final, she bested several other women who had pulled off upset wins in the rounds. Chwalinska wasn&amp;rsquo;t even supposed to make the main draw, and instead she darn near won it. Heck, she had to get help from a Polish company to cover her unexpectedly long hotel stay. Between injuries and a mental health break, Chwalinska overcame a ton of obstacles to make her unprecedented run from the qualifying courts to the French finals.&amp;nbsp;Her Cinderella run ended at the hands of 8th-seeded Mirra Andreeva, a young player who has been touted for years as the next great one&amp;hellip;except she had worn that label long enough (despite being only 19, that&amp;rsquo;s tennis) without winning a major that some started to wonder about the hype.&amp;nbsp;As often happens in the NCAA tourney, the upset-minded upstart Chwalisnka held tough early. Or rather, broke early; the first four games featured service breaks. And then Andreeva manifested her anticipated destiny with some overpowering, brilliant, dominant tennis. The 5 seed that upsets the No. 2 in March Madness on Friday almost never wins on Sunday to get to the Sweet 16, and that&amp;rsquo;s exactly what happened here.From a fan perspective, I loved not seeing the same names in either the women&amp;rsquo;s or the men&amp;rsquo;s draw. Another first-time winner, Alexander Zverev, beat his good friend Flavio Cobolli to finally break through in a major. Zverev, blessed with the best hair in tennis, benefitted from Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Dani Medvedev and other top players all bowing out unexpectedly early. That&amp;rsquo;s not to take away from Zverev&amp;rsquo;s great tourney, but it&amp;rsquo;s a reminder that good fortune and opportunistic timing are often needed as much as talent to win titles--in any sport.&amp;nbsp;This year&amp;rsquo;s French Open had something for everyone, except for well-known figures competing. I hope non-tennis fans paid some attention, because all the sports narratives that folks love in other sports played out in Paris. In a month that also saw underdog, underexposed Aaron Rai win the PGA Championship and captivate the sporting world beyond golf, plus the Knicks making their first NBA Finals this century, it&amp;rsquo;s been a really good time for the dreamers. People like me, a long-suffering Detroit Lions fan who desperately wants a taste of a title.&amp;nbsp;]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Risdon]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:16:19 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://football.realgm.com/analysis/3694/$05-After-The-Myles-Garrett-AJ-Brown-Trades</guid>
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      <title>Five Questions About The NBA Finals Ahead Of Game 3</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285974/Five-Questions-About-The-NBA-Finals-Ahead-Of-Game-3</link>
      <description><![CDATA[These NBA Finals felt like a toss-up before the series began and, even as the Knicks are up 2-0 as the series arrives at Madison Square Garden, I still have plenty of questions. Let&amp;rsquo;s dive right in.
1. Are the Knicks simply the better team?
The Spurs were heavy betting favorites heading into this series, but the reality is that they were probably slightly overrated while the Knicks were underrated.&amp;nbsp;
In the conference finals, the Spurs needed seven games to take down an impaired Thunder team. The Knicks needed four games to dispatch a solid Cavs team. There wasn&amp;rsquo;t a scenario where the Knicks weren&amp;rsquo;t coming out of the East, while it&amp;rsquo;s easy to imagine the West with a different representative. That&amp;rsquo;s not to disparage San Antonio&amp;rsquo;s run, but only one of these teams truly dominated on their way to the Finals, and that team was largely considered the worst of the two.
Everyone agreed that the Knicks weren&amp;rsquo;t a historically great team the way that their point differential reflected, but we probably overcorrected too much. Truth is, these Knicks are still very good, and they have been playing better basketball than anyone in the league for at least a month &amp;ndash; the Western Conference included.
The Knicks are doing everything at a high level. On offense, they score in multiple ways after morphing into the best passing team, 1-5, in the league. The decision to turn Karl-Anthony Towns into a playmaking hub was like giving the Knicks bunkbeds &amp;ndash; there is so much more room for activities. Defensively, all they have done during this run is stamp out some of the game&amp;rsquo;s best offensive players. Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Donovan Mitchell, James Harden and now Victor Wembanyama have all been something less than their usual selves against the Knicks. Maybe you could chalk up one or two of those to a fluke or tough rock-paper-scissors mismatch, but not a whole playoff run.
And for everyone who worried whether the Knicks could continue to win when their scorching-hot shooting started to regress, well, they&amp;rsquo;ve made just 41.5% of their shots in the Finals and are up 2-0. This isn&amp;rsquo;t some team that got hot at the right time. This is a team that coalesced and started playing its best ball at the right time.
2. Will the Spurs keep defending Karl-Anthony Towns with Victor Wembanyama?
Count me among the analysts who figured the Spurs would start with Wembanyama on Josh Hart so that the Spurs could get to their Vic-in-the-box defense (credit to Bill Simmons for that one). Well, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson hasn&amp;rsquo;t done that, instead slotting Wemby on Towns. The reason is simple: San Antonio doesn&amp;rsquo;t have anyone else that can defend Towns.
The Spurs don&amp;rsquo;t have an OG Anunoby on the roster. Julian Champaigne and Devin Vassell are too small or slight to guard Towns. That works against a stringbean like Chet Holmgren, but not against Towns, who at some point over the last five months realized that he&amp;rsquo;s bigger and stronger than most people.&amp;nbsp;
Remember when coaches used to always slot a wing on Towns so that they could switch the two-man game with Jalen Brunson? That doesn&amp;rsquo;t happen anymore. All of the Knicks&amp;rsquo; playoff opponents went away from it &amp;ndash; the Hawks, the 76ers, the Cavs and now the Spurs. Nobody is putting wings on KAT anymore, because Towns started punishing that look by putting those tiny wings in the basket.
So while having Wembanyama guard Towns isn&amp;rsquo;t ideal, it&amp;rsquo;s San Antonio&amp;rsquo;s best option. One thing the Spurs could do (and I&amp;rsquo;m surprised we haven&amp;rsquo;t seen it at all yet) is play Luke Kornet with Wemby and have Kornet guard Towns so that Wemby can roam in his one-man zone. Johnson has apparently decided that those two can&amp;rsquo;t play together outside of special situations. They have shared the court in these playoffs for just 14 possessions, and mostly in one-offs when the Spurs need to grab a rebound.
To be fair to Johnson, the &amp;ldquo;French Vanilla&amp;rdquo; lineup wasn&amp;rsquo;t good in its regular-season minutes. He may have just decided that it&amp;rsquo;s not viable.
But these are the Finals. It doesn&amp;rsquo;t have to work against every team, just this one for a few games.
Johnson has experimented with Carter Bryant and Harrison Barnes early in this series so it&amp;rsquo;s not as if he&amp;rsquo;s averse to trying stuff. He should dust off his two-big lineup and give it a try. Anything to unleash Wembanyama&amp;rsquo;s full powers &amp;ndash; which is the only way the Spurs are going to get back in this series.
3. Can the Spurs still win this series?
The short answer is yes. The longer answer looks something like this: The Spurs have shown they can win on the road. They are 6-3 on the road in these playoffs, including a huge win in Game 7 at Oklahoma City. That Thunder crowd is the minimum expectation for what Madison Square Garden will be like for Games 3 and 4. Knicks fans have been waiting for this opportunity for 50 years &amp;ndash; or more than two Wemby liftetimes. Like we saw in Game 1 against the Cavs, that crowd can impact the game.
The Spurs need to get at least one of these games, probably both, to really make this a series. Beating the Knicks four out of six times is doable. Going down 3-1 leaves zero room for mistakes.
Turnovers have cost San Antonio but the overall margin for the series isn&amp;rsquo;t that wide with these teams separated by just two points off turnovers. What&amp;rsquo;s killing the Spurs is the second-chance points, where the Knicks have a 37-23 advantage. Towns has seven offensive rebounds in this series. Wembanyama has to do a better job of boxing out. So do San Antonio&amp;rsquo;s guards.
The Spurs won&amp;rsquo;t win that category against a physical Knicks team, but they can narrow the margin. Do that, try to unlock Wemby on both ends and hope your shooters get hot before New York&amp;rsquo;s do is the recipe to get back into this series.&amp;nbsp;
4. What can the Knicks do better?
The Finals are perhaps one Wembanyama pass off Castle&amp;rsquo;s backside away from a split series. The Knicks are up 2-0 but have been far from perfect. Obviously, the No.1 thing they could do better is make more shots. They went from making more than half of their shots in the East bracket to just over 41% in the Finals. They are shooting just 24% on above-the-break 3s, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Mitchell Robinson, dealing with a broken pinky finger, looked better in Game 2 than in Game 1. He has just two offensive rebounds and nine points in 27 minutes. This is someone who had 10 offensive rebounds in 18 minutes against the Spurs in the NBA Cup championship. There&amp;rsquo;s room for Robinson to do more.
5. If the Knicks win, will we talk about them like a potential dynasty, like we did with the past two winners?
When the Celtics and then Thunder won in 2024 and 2025, one of the first questions was how many more times those teams could win. The Celtics had just gotten over the hump with one of the most mathematically dominant seasons in league history and the Thunder were (and are) very young with assets to keep it going.
Neither team has been back to the Finals since they won. That doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean they can&amp;rsquo;t still be dynasties, but there will clearly be competition. There was even dynasty talk about the Spurs before they ever played a Finals game. Yet, any dynasty talk seems to miss the Knicks.
Maybe the right approach is to stop predicting the next dynasty altogether, but I do find it curious that most people don&amp;rsquo;t even consider the Knicks, and it doesn&amp;rsquo;t seem like that will change even if they win the title. But what&amp;rsquo;s holding the Knicks back from making it back to the Finals next year? Their best players are under contract for the next two years, and they aren&amp;rsquo;t facing any tough decisions related to the luxury tax aprons. There&amp;rsquo;s no reason why the Knicks can&amp;rsquo;t keep this core together through the next presidential election.&amp;nbsp;
The Celtics will retool, the Pacers will have Tyrese Haliburton back, the Pistons aren&amp;rsquo;t going anywhere, and teams like the Cavs, Magic and Heat could make bold moves to shake things up this summer. But all of those teams are playing catch-up to the Knicks.
It&amp;rsquo;s worth pointing out that the Knicks beat a better version of the Celtics last year and were a miracle shot away from beating the Pacers and making the Finals a year earlier, so it&amp;rsquo;s not as if this Knicks team came out of nowhere.
But they are better now than they&amp;rsquo;ve ever been, having forged an air-tight identity and winning mentality through adversity. There were growing pains, but the Knicks are here, and two wins away from claiming the franchise&amp;rsquo;s first modern championship.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Wes Goldberg]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 07:32:33 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285974/Five-Questions-About-The-NBA-Finals-Ahead-Of-Game-3</guid>
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      <title>NBA Draft Report: Karim Lopez Of New Zealand Breakers</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285962/NBA-Draft-Report-Karim-Lopez-Of-New-Zealand-Breakers</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The 2026 NBA Draft is completely stacked with collegiate talent, but it&amp;rsquo;s decidedly thin with international prospects. We&amp;rsquo;re looking at one of the weakest international classes in quite some time, and that&amp;rsquo;s always a bit of a bummer. But we should see one international prospect drafted in the lottery in Mexican 19-year-old Karim Lopez, who played for the NBL&amp;rsquo;s New Zealand Breakers last season.&amp;nbsp;
Lopez will be an interesting swing for smart front offices. As far as upside goes, a good argument can be made that Lopez doesn&amp;rsquo;t possess as much as others in his draft range. The 6-foot-8 forward doesn&amp;rsquo;t have much vertical pop as an athlete, he&amp;rsquo;s quite slow, and it&amp;rsquo;s not clear what type of player he&amp;rsquo;ll be at the next level. That&amp;rsquo;s because Lopez is pretty good at everything, but he falls short of being great at anything. That makes it hard to buy into the idea of Lopez being a No. 1 or a No. 2 on a very good team, and that might be difficult for certain executives to stomach in a talented draft. But Lopez has a chance to be a high-level starter, and someone that can tie many lineups together. That&amp;rsquo;s valuable in its own right.&amp;nbsp;
Offensively, Lopez&amp;rsquo;s biggest weakness is a shaky jumper. And make no mistake about it, that&amp;rsquo;s a big one. Lopez shot only 32.2% from deep across all leagues in 2025-26. That was actually an improvement upon the 30.4% he shot in 2024-25, which is always a good thing to see. However, Lopez did struggle a bit after a hot start to the season, leaving more doubt about how the jumper will translate at the next level. In looking at his mechanics, Lopez clearly understands elbow and ball placement, as the overall release point is there. However, it takes Lopez too long to get his shot off. It isn&amp;rsquo;t quite like Kyle Anderson slow-loading his cannon, but Lopez&amp;rsquo;s shot takes time and is a little catapult-y. Cleaning that up will be job No. 1 as his next coaching staff looks to develop him.&amp;nbsp;
If Lopez&amp;rsquo;s jumper eventually comes along, he&amp;rsquo;s going to be a tough player to cover. While it looks a bit like he&amp;rsquo;s running in slow motion, Lopez is tremendous at getting himself to the rim. He&amp;rsquo;s extremely efficient in utilizing his long strides, he has good footwork, and he&amp;rsquo;s very good at keeping his defenders off balance. From there, Lopez can either go all the way to finish at the rim, or stop on a dime and turn around for a fadeaway jumper. He already has a bit of a go-to move in his spin move, and it just isn&amp;rsquo;t hard to envision his arsenal being tougher to guard with NBA spacing. Also, the pace he plays at, combined with his unique movement, should eventually make him a threat to get to the free throw line.&amp;nbsp;
If Lopez can continue to make strides as a passer, there&amp;rsquo;s a chance he ends up being the perfect type of player to put next to an offensive alpha. Lopez averaged 1.9 assists per game across all action in 2025-26, which was up from 1.2 in 2024-25. He has also improved his assist-to-turnover ratio. Developing as a playmaker, or just making quicker reads, will be crucial. Given he doesn&amp;rsquo;t have the skill set to be a true No. 1 scoring option on offense, being a strong connective piece, in addition to being a good secondary or tertiary scorer, would be big.&amp;nbsp;
The vision for a player like Lopez is something of a cross between Aaron Gordon and Deni Avdija, but probably more like the Wizards version of the latter. It wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be fair to expect the Portland version. It also should be noted that the Gordon comparison is based on the offense, as expecting that type of defense is completely unrealistic.&amp;nbsp;
Defensively, Lopez isn&amp;rsquo;t a liability, but he isn&amp;rsquo;t an asset yet either. Lopez has good size, the positional versatility is there, and he&amp;rsquo;s a smart player. However, the lack of speed hurts him on the wing, and he&amp;rsquo;s not tall enough to guard bigs consistently. That hasn&amp;rsquo;t led to him getting roasted, but he&amp;rsquo;s going to need to work extremely hard at improving on this end of the floor. Lopez also needs to be a little more engaged as an off-ball defender. While he is a bright player, he does occasionally fall asleep off the ball.&amp;nbsp;
Lopez is a few small things away from being the type of complete player you see in championship-winning rotations, and perhaps that&amp;rsquo;s selling him a bit short. It isn&amp;rsquo;t out of the realm of possibility that he figures everything out and becomes a big, versatile player that can really impact games offensively and wear many different hats. However, even some of his lower-range outcomes will see him turn into a very good starter, and that makes him worthy of a top-14 selection. The thought of him growing next to Cooper Flagg with the Dallas Mavericks is fun, and he&amp;rsquo;d also be an interesting addition as an instant-impact youngster with the Golden State Warriors or Charlotte Hornets.&amp;nbsp;]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Zachary Cohen]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 22:48:13 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285962/NBA-Draft-Report-Karim-Lopez-Of-New-Zealand-Breakers</guid>
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      <title>The NBA&apos;s Attrition Era</title>
      <link>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285904/The-NBAs-Attrition-Era</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Adam Silver will soon be presenting the Larry O&apos;Brien Trophy for the 13th time as NBA commissioner, and it could go to an eleventh different champion. It will be the eighth unique winner in eight years. In the David Stern era that spanned thirty seasons from 1984 through 2014, only eight franchises won a championship. Silver has blown past that number in half the time, and he isn&apos;t finished. The league Silver inherited frequently looked like an oligarchy; the one he&apos;s built resembles pass the parcel. Whether that&apos;s progress depends on what you think the NBA is for. Continuity is layered over time while something novel also can feel disjointed.&amp;nbsp;
The Finals might be the ideal Silver-era encapsulation. The San Antonio Spurs won the title in his first season as commissioner in 2014, ending the Miami Heat&apos;s bid for a third straight championship. Now the Spurs are back in the Finals for the first time since, led by yet another generational big man, preparing to play a New York Knicks franchise that last won in 1973 when J. Walter Kennedy was running the league. The Spurs beat the Knicks in the 1999 Finals too, Tim Duncan against a lurching, eighth-seeded team, after a lockout that shortened the season and introduced the maximum salary system, one of the mechanisms that would eventually make it structurally difficult for any team to hold a championship core together long enough to become a dynasty. The league essentially planted the seed of its own competitive diffusion in the same year it produced one of its most dominant champions.&amp;nbsp;
Now it&apos;s Victor Wembanyama against Jalen Brunson, the same structure and entirely different stakes. The Spurs are a dynasty being born; the Knicks are a fan base that has been waiting so long the waiting itself has become part of their identity, and they play in the biggest media market in the country. Silver couldn&apos;t have scripted it better if he&apos;d tried.
But the parity that produced this matchup is worth examining, because it isn&apos;t entirely the product of competitive health. The NBA has moved away from the dynasties that defined Stern&apos;s tenure not simply because talent is more evenly distributed, but because the game itself has become more punishing. The explosion of pace-and-space basketball has required players to cover more court more frequently, and bodies have more easily determined limits than the game itself. Fewer and fewer teams are arriving at the playoffs, let alone the Finals, with their rosters intact. Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals won in overtime by the Spurs was played at an intensity that felt more dangerous than an NFL playoff game.
The collective bargaining agreements of 2011 and 2023 layered on additional complications, apron rules, roster restrictions, the creeping challenge of keeping a championship core together when the league&apos;s financial architecture is designed to disperse it. The penalties are no longer merely financial.
The recent history of champions reads less like a record of excellence than a chronicle of attrition. The Boston Celtics won in 2024 and have spent the two seasons since watching their competitive window erode in real time, injuries and cap realities working in tandem like a slow demolition. The Denver Nuggets won in 2023 and found themselves unable to sustain the conditions that made that team possible. The Milwaukee Bucks won in 2021, retooled aggressively enough to stay relevant, burned through their draft capital, and then watched injuries foreclose every legitimate window that followed. Giannis Antetokounmpo will almost certainly be traded this offseason as he openly wrestles with the conflict between being a one-franchise star and having another legitimate shot at a title. These aren&apos;t failures of vision or execution. They&apos;re what happens in a league where being good enough to win it all also makes you the most expensive and the most exposed.
The two teams that appear structurally immune to this cycle are the Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are built in a way that makes attrition almost impossible, depth layered on depth, draft capital that won&apos;t run out in anyone&apos;s reasonable planning horizon. They went 4-8 against San Antonio during their 12 games across the regular season, NBA Cup and West Finals, and there is a version of their future in which they simply outlast everyone, including Wembanyama. They couldn&apos;t beat him this spring, but they also didn&apos;t have their second-best player in Jalen Williams and their third best shot creator in Ajay Mitchell. The Spurs won Games 6 and 7, ending Oklahoma City&apos;s hopes of becoming the first team since the Warriors in 2018 to win back-to-back titles.
The natural assumption is that the Thunder will be back, probably more than once, which makes what happened in that series, and specifically what happened to Chet Holmgren, worth wondering if it is merely prologue. The presumed answer to Wembanyama was the player who most resembled him: another tall, wiry, defensively extraordinary big man who can also put the ball on the floor and shoot three-pointers, a reflection of the thing you were trying to stop. The rivalry had a personal edge for exactly that reason, the recognition between them amplifying the dislike. Which made Holmgren&apos;s disappearance in the Conference Finals all the more deflating, not just for Thunder fans but for anyone who wanted to see the question properly answered. The best asset the Thunder have is time, and they are fortunate to be run by Sam Presti, who has the ultimate job security and the patience to resist doing something drastic, like trading for Antetokounmpo. First, do no harm.
Not only does Wembanyama have unprecedented agility and ball skills to match his 7-foot-4 frame, he has the intellect, the instincts, and a competition in him. He also has in Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle the ideal combination of co-stars at guard. Castle plays tough, fearless defense and will keep improving offensively, while Harper&apos;s combination of playmaking and size could make him and Wembanyama the best big-man/guard pairing since Shaquille O&apos;Neal and Kobe Bryant won three straight titles with the Lakers. The Spurs certainly had some adventitious outcomes with the lotteries in 2023, 2024 and 2025, but Brian Wright also wisely accelerated the project by trading for De&apos;Aaron Fox and passing on trading for Kevin Durant or Giannis.
New York&apos;s path here was more deliberate and, in its own way, more revealing about how teams have decided to operate in this era. The Knicks watched the Celtics build around a pair of All-NBA wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown and responded by trading for the best wings available. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges give the Knicks positional size, the kind of length that negates mismatches and stretches the court simultaneously. The roster they built isn&apos;t beautiful in theory, but it has proved very difficult to defend in practice. The Knicks won eleven consecutive games by an average of nearly 24 points. Their starting five uniquely complement each other, and each of them is overqualified for the role they play.
The Finals won&apos;t resolve the question of whether Silver&apos;s parity is a feature or a consequence. But it will tell us something meaningful about what kind of champion this league is capable of producing, either a young Spurs team that might be the last thing resembling a dynasty anyone will see for a while, or a Knicks team whose title would be the purest expression of this era&apos;s logic: assembled precisely, deployed exactly right, winning once before the window closes. The Spurs were built via a draft system that will be undergoing dramatic change starting next year. The Knicks assembled theirs via one &amp;nbsp;transformative free agent signing that nobody saw coming followed by a series of trades.
The Spurs never won back-to-back titles during the Gregg Popovich era, winning it every other year in 2003, 2005 and 2007, before one final send off in 2014. Maybe the Spurs are the model the NBA wants where it achieves variety more than parity.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Christopher Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 06:52:43 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/285904/The-NBAs-Attrition-Era</guid>
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      <title>2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs Predictions: Finals</title>
      <link>https://hockey.realgm.com/analysis/561/2026-Stanley-Cup-Playoffs-Predictions-Finals</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Carolina Hurricanes will meet the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Finals after a dominant run through the Eastern Conference as they are the first team to reach the finals with one or fewer losses since the 1983 Edmonton Oilers.Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen has been excellent, while Taylor Hall has recorded 16 points over 13 games. The Hurricanes have an implied probability of 61 percent, according to oddsmakers.If the Golden Knights are able to defeat the Hurricanes, it will be because Mitch Marner has continued his excellent run in his first season with the club since joining from the Toronto Maples Leafs on a $96 million contract. Marner enters the finals with seven goals and 14 assists in 16 games.Even though Vegas appears to be peaking at the right time following their shocking sweep of the Carolina Avalanche, the Hurricanes are playing at a higher level and appear destined to win their first Stanley Cup since 2006.Prediction: Hurricanes over Golden Knights in six gamesRecord: 1-1 in conference finals, 7-7 overall]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Darryl Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sun, 31 May 2026 22:15:42 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://hockey.realgm.com/analysis/561/2026-Stanley-Cup-Playoffs-Predictions-Finals</guid>
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      <title>A Tale Of Two Madrids, Part 1: Diego Simeone Goes Out In Peace</title>
      <link>https://soccer.realgm.com/analysis/557/A-Tale-Of-Two-Madrids-Part-1-Diego-Simeone-Goes-Out-In-Peace</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Diego Simeone went out of the Champions League semifinals with acceptance following Atletico Madrid&amp;rsquo;s 2-1 aggregate defeat against Arsenal. This was in contrast to his theatrics in the first leg of the tie, in which former Arsenal defender Martin Keown said that Simeone&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;actions on the sidelines&amp;rdquo; and the &amp;ldquo;the drama he creates&amp;rdquo; were responsible for the referee overturning an Arsenal penalty through VAR that kept the match level at 1-1. Simeone was part of another controversial non-penalty call on Antoine Griezmann in the second leg, though this time, the Argentine manager said that he didn&amp;rsquo;t want to make any excuses for the loss.&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;What I feel is tranquility, peace. The team gave everything they had,&amp;rdquo; said Simeone following the loss in the second leg.&amp;nbsp;This was a manager who also confronted Liverpool supporters earlier this season, and whose side was accused by Barcelona for tampering with the Metropolitano Stadium pitch ahead of their European clash. The peaceful tranquility could be a new era of Simeone&amp;rsquo;s personal growth. But with the league title, Copa del Rey, and the Champions League all gone, and Atleti not having won a title since 2021, his reaction could be him coming to terms with the limitations and ceiling of his side in the modern footballing world.&amp;nbsp;Simeone admitted that &amp;ldquo;we haven&amp;rsquo;t won anything, but we&amp;rsquo;ve gotten to places it isn&amp;rsquo;t easy to get to.&amp;rdquo; It&amp;rsquo;s this response that causes critics to point out that Simeone actually has a straightforward job of being the highest-paid manager in the world without the pressure of winning trophies as he&amp;rsquo;s transcended the role into being a symbol for the club. But he seems to automatically start each year with his back against the wall as we wonder whether this will be his final season after 14 years.It&amp;rsquo;s difficult to overstate how much Simeone modernized the club since 2011, solidifying it as a perennial fixture in the Champions League, increasing its global brand presence, and opening a new stadium. With the material and financial elements secure, Simeone is in his post-modern management era of finding meaning after completing all of his tasks. What else is there to do? Build a new training facility? Win more matches? After the tickets are sold and physical objects constructed, all that&amp;rsquo;s left to do is just&amp;hellip;more.&amp;nbsp;Simeone has spent recent years insisting that Atleti are growing into an attacking side, with the team&amp;rsquo;s 5-3-2 formation symbolically representing a break from the past (although the tried-and-true 4-4-2 was the team&amp;rsquo;s most used formation this season). Atleti were fourth in goals scored and fifth with an average of 53.4% possession per match this season. With the third most valuable squad in the league, the attacking numbers ran chalk. The goals, the possession, was as expected - nothing less, nothing more.Simeone described Antoine Griezmann, who is set to leave for Orlando City this summer, as one of best players he&amp;rsquo;s ever managed. He also acknowledged Griezmann&amp;rsquo;s initial struggles moving from the wing to a more central position, saying that the French player had a &amp;ldquo;difficult three months trying to figure out where he fit in.&amp;rdquo; The quote reveals why the manager struggles with integrating high-priced transfers into his attack short of Julian Alvarez as they&amp;rsquo;re left to figure it out. Simeone wants to evolve into an attacking team - but still within his own rules.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;In Simeone&amp;rsquo;s eternal search for wingers and strikers, Atleti&amp;rsquo;s two most expensive transfers this season were Alex Baena and Ademola Lookman, who combined for six goals in 37 league matches. To be an attacker under Simeone requires a unique blend of on and off-ball traits, combining the dogged hunger of running channels and pressing with magic and creativity. There are ghosts with the memories of signing Diego Costa for under $2 million and the search for the next unpolished gem. But that Atleti side came onto the European scene when underdog fairy tales and squeezing the most out of a limited roster was still possible.&amp;nbsp;Simeone has navigated a change of eras before, though he acknowledged Pep Guardiola&amp;rsquo;s mentioning a lack of energy as a reason for why he stepped down from Manchester City. Simeone described the cycle of managing a group that trains and competes every three days as a &amp;ldquo;snowball that does not stop.&amp;rdquo; Regardless, Simeone appears energized by the challenge of building another squad in today&amp;rsquo;s game. He pointed to Arsenal as the blueprint for what he wants to create in this next iteration, saying that Mikel Arteta&amp;rsquo;s side were the &amp;ldquo;most balanced&amp;rdquo; in attack and defense at the highest level.&amp;nbsp;Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp leaving the clubs they modernized in recent years prepared us for what to expect come Simeone&amp;rsquo;s eventual departure. There will be an announcement on social media, followed by a video compilation of his achievements. We will write our own farewells about how Simeone changed the game, with criticisms about his style always kinder in hindsight once we zoom out over a larger timeline. The search for a replacement will become its own spectacle. Every Atleti manager for the foreseeable future will operate under his shadow.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;After knocking out Barcelona in the Champions League quarterfinals, Simeone said that watching his side compete still made him &amp;ldquo;emotional&amp;rdquo; after all these years. With the project of building a modern, sustainable infrastructure complete, it&amp;rsquo;s the ephemeral that keep the future alive.&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash;But where else could Simeone go where he&amp;rsquo;d matter this much within today&amp;rsquo;s footballing landscape? The top-down, data-driven approach takes power away from singular managerial figures. Chelsea&amp;rsquo;s focus is on a manager who can work within its sporting conglomerate. Linked with United in the past, they sought stability and connection with Michael Carrick. Enzo Maresca was rumored to succeed Pep Guardiola while he was still with Chelsea earlier this season. He has been linked with Inter, but Cristian Chivu won a double in his first season as manager. That Simeone is somewhat stuck at Atleti says as much about the state of world football as it does either side.&amp;nbsp;Investment groups pursuing global aspirations added a wrinkle since Simeone first took over Atleti. Ambitious projects like opening new stadiums, another of the few moments where Simeone admitted to feeling &amp;ldquo;human,&amp;rdquo; are set in motion regardless of the manager. Outside of Unai Emery&amp;rsquo;s Aston Villa and perhaps Como, there isn&amp;rsquo;t a clear similarity to the 2010s Atleti-esque context of a club ready to make the next leap to become the third or fourth alternate team among the traditional powers.&amp;nbsp;Attaching the most famous managers to the biggest clubs used to be much simpler. In the past, it was perceived that Simeone would leave Atleti for a club with European and global ambitions. But then Atleti developed into that club, and with every passing year, the two sides are increasingly locked into a mutually-beneficial stalemate. Atleti get sustained competitiveness in both Spain and Europe and an identity to market. Simeone gets his control and influence. Today, they need each other more than ever.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Yu Miyagawa]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2026 17:41:48 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://soccer.realgm.com/analysis/557/A-Tale-Of-Two-Madrids-Part-1-Diego-Simeone-Goes-Out-In-Peace</guid>
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      <title>$.05 After Memorial Day Weekend</title>
      <link>https://football.realgm.com/analysis/3693/$05-After-Memorial-Day-Weekend</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The NFL never sleeps, not even in the deepest recesses of the league calendar.&amp;nbsp;$.01--The Aaron Rodgers saga plays on, but there is now a finite ending to the long-running drama surrounding the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback. Rodgers, after a self-serving dramatic pause, announced his intentions to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2026 season.&amp;nbsp;Rodgers&amp;rsquo; return is surprising only to those living in the lightless retreat where the mercurial quarterback spends some of his &amp;ldquo;me time&amp;rdquo; in the offseason. The minute the Steelers hired Mike McCarthy as the new head coach cinched that decision. While Rodgers and McCarthy didn&amp;rsquo;t always see eye to eye during their years together in Green Bay, both men are smart enough to realize they were better together than apart. That&amp;rsquo;s certainly true for Pittsburgh in 2026.&amp;nbsp;A quick perusal of the Steelers&amp;rsquo; depth chart at quarterback indicates the team certainly expected a Rodgers return. Will Howard and Drew Allar are battling with Mason Rudolph for supremacy. With no Rodgers in Pittsburgh, the winner of that battle royale would almost certainly qualify as the NFL&amp;rsquo;s weakest starter--and that&amp;rsquo;s with some optimism for youngsters Howard and Allar. The concept that Rodgers would walk away with any potential for the perception that he wasn&amp;rsquo;t superior to that QB cadre seems insanely naive.&amp;nbsp;The more surprising development was Rodgers declaring that 2026 will be his final season. It&amp;rsquo;s proper to be skeptical of such a proclamation, but Rodgers is smart enough to recognize his reality. No quarterback with at least 200 pass attempts had a lower average air yards per target than Rodgers in 2025. Some of that was undoubtedly a function of the old Steelers&amp;rsquo; regime, but anyone watching Rodgers--especially late in the season--saw a quarterback who just doesn&amp;rsquo;t have the arm he used to. At 42, it&amp;rsquo;s understandable. It&amp;rsquo;s also unrealistic to expect an aging Rodgers to recapture the strong-armed derring-do of his prime.&amp;nbsp;The Steelers didn&amp;rsquo;t really have a better option, not after sitting out the free agency spin cycle. Their relative passivity in free agency, as well as their lip service supporting Howard&amp;rsquo;s potential, was a clear sign that Pittsburgh always expected Rodgers to return. Envisioning a return to the postseason with Rodgers at the helm is a proposition the Steelers, with their aging but still talented roster, had to make with native son McCarthy taking over in Pittsburgh.&amp;nbsp;$.02--Detroit Lions linebacker Jack Campbell signed a four-year contract extension that will keep the first-team All-Pro in Detroit through at least the 2030 season. It&amp;rsquo;s a deal worth $81 million, or $20.25 million per season. That figure is reflective of an interesting off-ball linebacker market and also one of the most egregious snafus in the NFL today.&amp;nbsp;One of the reasons Detroit extended Campbell now is due to the fact the team did not pick up the fifth-year option on his rookie contract. A first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Campbell had to have that fifth-year option exercised by the Lions before May 1st. Detroit wisely declined to pick it up, but not because of any dissatisfaction with Campbell or lack of desire ot keep him long-term. It was all about the antiquated, incomplete language of the fifth-year options.&amp;nbsp;Campbell plays linebacker and plays it quite well. But he&amp;rsquo;s not a pass-rushing linebacker like Micah Parsons or T.J. Watt or Will Anderson, who signed a three-year, $150 million extension in April. Despite the obvious disparity and divergence in their positions and usage, the NFL still considers all &amp;ldquo;linebackers&amp;rdquo; as the same, at least contractually.&amp;nbsp;The success Campbell had in his first three seasons escalated his fifth-year option, regardless of what position he plays. Being named a first-team All-Pro, as he earned in 2025, elevated Campbell&amp;rsquo;s option into the franchise tag value for all linebackers. Again, because all LBs are lumped together, that value for Campbell would have exceeded $21.9 million--an astronomical number for an off-ball backer. No off-ball LB has ever made that kind of money.&amp;nbsp;Campbell came relatively close with his $20.25 million, but it&amp;rsquo;s still over $1.5 million per year less. That&amp;rsquo;s not an insignificant amount of money for a team like the Lions, who must still extend star RB Jahmyr Gibbs, Pro Bowl TE Sam LaPorta and Pro Bowl S Brian Branch in the coming months (if they choose).&amp;nbsp;The fact that the NFL considers Campbell, or Fred Warner or Devin Lloyd or Roquan Smith, to be the same position as Anderson or Maxx Crosby or Campbell&amp;rsquo;s Detroit teammate, Aidan Hutchinson, remains one of the most ludicrous oversights by the league and the NFLPA. Be it options or franchise tags or postseason awards, the NFL is decades behind the times in making all linebackers the same on paper. It&amp;rsquo;s a very simple fix: separate off-ball LB and EDGE the way most every outlet has done for at least 15 years. At this point, there&amp;rsquo;s no valid reason not to make the necessary change.&amp;nbsp;$.03--The New York Giants had an eventful week, albeit in a way that many fans would have preferred not to experience.&amp;nbsp;We&amp;rsquo;ll start with the worst news first, and that&amp;rsquo;s the unfortunate update on the wounded knee of star wide receiver Malik Nabers. Reports indicate that Nabers, who tore his ACL in Week 4 last fall, had to undergo an additional surgery to clear up some complications from the initial surgery performed last October. While the second procedure isn&amp;rsquo;t a major one, the surgical correction tacks on months of added rehabilitation to Nabers&amp;rsquo; return timeline.&amp;nbsp;The timeline is still unclear, but Nabers\&apos; ability to play in Week 1 is now in real peril. The Giants remain optimistic, but good vibes don&amp;rsquo;t always expedite healing. Nabers is New York&amp;rsquo;s top offensive weapon; missing the young dynamo for any period of time will not help Jaxson Dart and the Giants passing game--especially with top 2025 wideout WanDale Robinson now in Tennessee.&amp;nbsp;Dart was in the news for the wrong reasons as well. The quarterback introduced President Trump at a gala, and that didn&amp;rsquo;t sit well with at least one Giants teammate. EDGE Abdul Carter, like Dart a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, chided his rookie classmate on social media for his association with the polarizing President.&amp;nbsp;The two young standouts quickly smoothed things over, at least publicly. That&amp;rsquo;s important for the future of the Giants, which leans heavily on both becoming all they can be in New York. Behind closed locker room doors? The Giants aren&amp;rsquo;t the only team dealing with fissuring politics. The average fan would likely be surprised and, depending on their political leaning, either dismayed or encouraged by how many NFL players support Trump and his politics. That the pot boiled over in New York, of all places, with two building blocks for a young Giants team doesn&amp;rsquo;t help new head coach John Harbaugh at all.&amp;nbsp;Finally, the Giants organization issued a multi-year contract extension to GM Joe Schoen. The GMs tenure has been a decidedly mixed bag, with some excellent draft picks (Dart, Nabers and Carter included) but also some disastrous decisions. From the 2023 Draft class that might not exist in New York after this summer, to letting Saquon Barkley walk to a division rival, to handing a king&amp;rsquo;s ransom to Daniel Jones, Giants fans know all too well the agony of Schoen&amp;rsquo;s bad moves.&amp;nbsp;Many GMen faithful expected Schoen to hit the unemployment pavement with former coach Brian Daboll, as the two were hired together. Schoen survives and will be in charge of the Giants through at least 2030. Well, they&amp;rsquo;ll be paying for Schoen that long, anyway. Financially and perhaps metaphorically&amp;hellip;$.04--Quick Hits&amp;bull; The Rams and veteran QB Matthew Stafford agreed on a one-year contract worth $55 million. Presuming Stafford plays through the end of the contract in 2027 --and why wouldn&amp;rsquo;t he?-- it makes the decision to draft his eventual replacement, Ty Simpson, even more curious. Burning a top-15 pick on a player with no use ot the team for two years doesn&amp;rsquo;t help Stafford lead the team to the promised land again.&amp;bull; Keep a close eye on what happens with Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby and his lawsuit to keep his college eligibility. Sorsby admitted to betting on games early in his college career, and the NCAA has denied his claims to keep playing. If Sorsby can&amp;rsquo;t play in college, he&amp;rsquo;ll immediately enter the NFL&amp;rsquo;s supplemental draft. Sorsby would grade very similarly to Ty Simpson for me--a statement more about Simpson than Sorsby, perhaps. But for a team looking to add a No. 2 QB with impressive upside, he&amp;rsquo;s a no-brainer of a supplemental choice. As long as the team can withstand the stench of Sorsby&amp;rsquo;s gambling controversy.&amp;nbsp;&amp;bull; The Browns continue to spin Deshaun Watson&amp;rsquo;s name as their potential starting quarterback. They&amp;rsquo;re doing so while also not dampening any enthusiasm for Shedeur Sanders, and also seeing rookie Taylen Green earn massive praise from onlookers in OTAs. God only knows who will prevail to be Cleveland&amp;rsquo;s Week 1 starter. But what&amp;rsquo;s abundantly clear is that Dillon Gabriel, a third-round pick in 2025, isn&amp;rsquo;t in the mix. The weak-armed Gabriel was a ponderous choice to even be drafted, let alone in the third round, and the Browns have learned that lesson the hard way. Which appears to be how GM Andrew Berry prefers to run his organization&amp;rsquo;s Sisyphean quest to find a quarterback&amp;hellip;&amp;bull; Only three of the 16 teams playing internationally in 2026 will get a bye week following their games abroad. It&amp;rsquo;s going to be interesting to see if that preference of playing immediately after an international game instead of taking the bye week for travel sticks.&amp;nbsp;$.05--Folds of HonorOn this Memorial Day, I wanted to share a moving experience from the past week. As part of my radio duties here in West Michigan with the Huge Show, I spent this Thursday at the American Dunes Golf Course in Grand Haven.American Dunes is the flagship course of the Folds of Honor program. Founded by Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney, the Folds of Honor Foundation is a scholarship program for the families of service members and first responders killed in the line of duty.&amp;nbsp;Each hole at American Dunes honors a fallen service member with a plaque and the story of their journey. As you walk into the course, you pass through a commemorative wall of honor. It&amp;rsquo;s a powerful reminder of those who sacrificed their lives to allow us the privilege to enjoy being an American.&amp;nbsp;At 1 p.m. every day, all the golf stops. A rousing rendition of Taps plays as all eyes focus on the massive American flag in the middle of the 18th fairway. It&amp;rsquo;s done in such a way that evokes reverence for the fallen. Playing there and experiencing the honor on Memorial Day weekend is something truly special. It wasn&amp;rsquo;t lost on me how fortunate we are to be able to pay respect to those who gave their lives in combat, the spirit of Memorial Day.&amp;nbsp;If you ever happen to be in the Grand Rapids area, it&amp;rsquo;s worth a trip to Grand Haven to experience American Dunes and the spirit of the Folds of Honor. Aside from being a fantastic Jack Nicklaus course with an excellent in-house restaurant, it&amp;rsquo;s a great place to reconnect with the true meaning of Memorial Day.&amp;nbsp;]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Risdon]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2026 10:09:49 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://football.realgm.com/analysis/3693/$05-After-Memorial-Day-Weekend</guid>
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      <title>2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions: Conference Finals</title>
      <link>https://hockey.realgm.com/analysis/560/2026-NHL-Stanley-Cup-Playoff-Predictions-Conference-Finals</link>
      <description><![CDATA[&amp;bull; Second Round Record:&amp;nbsp; 3-1&amp;bull; Overall Record: 6-6&amp;nbsp;The Conference Finals are set and look for the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes to keep rolling towards an inevitable battle in the Stanely Cup Finals.&amp;nbsp;The Avs have Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar to go with a deep, talented roster. The Golden Knights will test them with Mitch Marner leading the attack.&amp;nbsp;The Avs will win the Western Conference series in six games.&amp;nbsp;In the East, the Hurricanes have been waiting to play and are anxious to get on the ice. Will they be too well-rested? I don\&apos;t think so, they\&apos;re healthy and ready to take on the Montreal Canadiens.&amp;nbsp; The Canadiens, who defeated the Buffalo Sabres in seven games with the final one going to overtime, have been resilient and have had some success this season against Carolina.&amp;nbsp;The Hurricanes will win the series in six games.]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Darryl Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 19 May 2026 14:52:52 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://hockey.realgm.com/analysis/560/2026-NHL-Stanley-Cup-Playoff-Predictions-Conference-Finals</guid>
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      <title>$.05 On The NFL Schedule Release</title>
      <link>https://football.realgm.com/analysis/3692/$05-On-The-NFL-Schedule-Release</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Only the NFL can turn a seemingly mundane procedure of revealing a regular-season schedule into a week-long, frenzied primetime spectacle. We&amp;rsquo;re roughly at the midpoint between the conclusion of the 2025 season and the onset of the 2026 campaign, and still the NFL finds ways to dominate the sports landscape.&amp;nbsp;$.01--Fans of every team pore over the schedule to try and unearth every little possible advantage, and also every conceivable reason to take offense in aghast horror at how the NFL has screwed them with some scheduling quirk. I did three radio shows in different markets on Friday, the day after the schedule release. All three led with complaints about their respective teams&amp;rsquo; schedule composition.&amp;nbsp;Most of the major complaints come from a discrepancy in rest time. The Chargers have every right to kvetch about that in 2026. Los Angeles earns an aggregate minus-22 days of rest compared to its opponents, the most in the league in at least 15 seasons. That&amp;rsquo;s losing more than one day of rest per game on average during the 17-game slate.&amp;nbsp;Arif Hasan of Wide Left compiled the net rest disparity for all 32 teams into a handy graphic.&amp;nbsp;Fans in Chicago and Buffalo can&amp;rsquo;t complain about their rest statuses. The Bears gain an incredible 36 days of net rest entering games than the Chargers, with the Bills one day of rest behind. It&amp;rsquo;s not lost on fans of other teams that the Bears and Bills, each perceived as popular contenders, had the NFL smile upon them in the scheduling matrix.&amp;nbsp;That narrative falls apart a bit with a look at the team directly above the Chargers in negative net rest disparity. The Eagles are one of the NFL&amp;rsquo;s most marketable, successful franchises. They drew a minus-15 in rest differential. With NFC East rivals Washington and Dallas each in the top five in positive net rest, I&amp;rsquo;m sure the conspiracy theories emanating out of Philly are venomously fun this week.&amp;nbsp;Another common complaint is the reality of having to play teams coming off a bye week. This is another area where Bears and Cowboys fans cannot shed any crocodile tears; Chicago and Dallas are among 14 NFL teams who avoid playing any team coming off extra rest. That&amp;rsquo;s baked into the positive rest differential equation, too.&amp;nbsp;In contrast, the Chargers and Eagles get hit with four separate games apiece against teams coming off a bye week. Both teams who call SoFi Stadium home get hit hard here, as the Rams draw three post-bye opponents.&amp;nbsp;It&amp;rsquo;s impossible to make a 17-game schedule completely equitable and balanced across 32 teams. But this year, more than most seasons, validates too many complaints from too many fan bases.&amp;nbsp;$.02--Over the years, the NFL schedule release has become a pseudo competition for the 32 in-house media staffs to get creative and entertaining. This year saw a bit of a change, with several teams opting for more minimalist release video presentations.&amp;nbsp;Heck, the team I cover on a daily basis, the Detroit Lions, kept it very simple by design. A 30-second spot of head coach Dan Campbell at his desk, with audio clips of anti-Lions quips. Campbell gets up, pins the printout of the schedule on a corkboard outside his office door. That&amp;rsquo;s it. It fits with the team&amp;rsquo;s renewed focus on football after a down season that failed to meet what seemed to be internally hyped-up, lofty expectations.&amp;nbsp;Other teams also scaled back on the production dynamics. Jacksonville&amp;rsquo;s video was folically gifted QB Trevor Lawrence getting a haircut. The Steelers&amp;rsquo; video appeared to be a leftover Chamber of Commerce spot from Pittsburgh recently hosting the 2026 NFL Draft. Houston had former linebacker Brian Cushing read off the opponents while getting progressively more intense and bloody, in his trademark style. It&amp;rsquo;s funny and self-aware, but it probably also cost them about $100 and whatever Cushing wanted to eat that morning. The Jets mixed paint colors, which actually came out much better than it might sound.&amp;nbsp;There were still several incredibly creative, slickly produced schedule release videos. The Chargers are the crowned kings of the format, and they didn&amp;rsquo;t disappoint this year either. The Colts borrowed from The Simpsons. Cleveland dialed up the classic &amp;ldquo;Street Fighter&amp;rdquo; video game. The Seahawks smartly lampooned a cologne ad theme. The Titans put a ton of effort into crafting some great &amp;ldquo;man on the street&amp;rdquo; moments.&amp;nbsp;Overall, it was a lower-key year for the schedule release videos. That doesn&amp;rsquo;t make them less entertaining or intriguing, by the way. It feels like the NFL teams are leaning into more locally-referenced, scaled-back productions instead of competing for short-form Oscars.&amp;nbsp;$.03--The schedule provides real insight into how the NFL views its teams. More correct is the notion that the primetime schedule is more reflective of how the NFL&amp;rsquo;s broadcast partners view as the best and worst teams.&amp;nbsp;It can be a tough blow to not draw a single primetime game all season. In fact, the NFL used to require at least one primetime game for every team, be it a Thursday night or Sunday night game. The league quietly did away with that rule a few years ago.&amp;nbsp;As a result, there are five teams that will not appear once on a national broadcast game (defined as games other than 1 or 4 p.m. ET on Sunday or international games). If you follow the league even moderately closely, you can probably guess at least three of those teams without much thought. They were the least successful teams a year ago, by and large, and are generally expected to remain far closer to earning the No. 1 pick in the 2027 NFL Draft than sniffing the postseason in 2026.&amp;nbsp;Arizona CardinalsLas Vegas RaidersMiami DolphinsNew York JetsTennessee TitansSorry, fans of those five teams, but the NFL sees you as bottom feeders not worthy of national exposure in 2026. It&amp;rsquo;s a little peculiar that the last two No. 1 overall picks, Cam Ward and Fernando Mendoza, will get no national games in the coming season, with as much as the NFL itself hypes them up during the months-long Draft process. They&amp;rsquo;re telling us how they really feel, a la a seemingly popular opening act having to cancel out a concert headlining tour because nobody buys the tickets. Instead of a 5,000-seat amphitheater, they might instead be lucky to sell out a 300-seat bar that begrudgingly cancels trivia night for the booking.&amp;nbsp;That four of the teams are from the AFC, including two from the AFC East, speaks volumes about the relative balance of power between the conferences, too.&amp;nbsp;$.04--A quick cent, but an important one on the strength of schedule discussion.&amp;nbsp;I don&amp;rsquo;t want to say ignore the strength of schedule in May, but it&amp;rsquo;s certainly overplayed and overhyped. Granted there are different ways to tabulate the strength of schedule. The metric that uses last year&amp;rsquo;s records, throw that one in the trash bin. It&amp;rsquo;s about as useful as a parasol in a haboob. In a league where at least team goes worst-to-first in a division every single year, a league with a substantial roster turnover rate every year, it&amp;rsquo;s disingenuous to expect last year&amp;rsquo;s results to perfectly carry into the next season. Sure, you can get a decent idea of who was good and bad, surprising and disappointing in 2025 from the teams&amp;rsquo; aggregate win percentage. It&amp;rsquo;s akin to knowing the general coastal area where a hurricane might make landfall, the cone of uncertainty is often quite wide before it narrows on the shoreline. The 2026 season is but a distant tropical depression building up, in meteorological terms.&amp;nbsp;The &amp;ldquo;better&amp;rdquo; way to tabulate strength of schedule is by using betting win total over/under figures for the coming season. Those are at least working with more updated, contemporary information and concepts. The Kansas City Chiefs are a good example of this.&amp;nbsp;Last year, the Chiefs bottomed out at 6-11. That lowly mark artificially waters down their presence on the strength of schedule. This is a franchise that had been in three straight Super Bowls, a team that hadn&amp;rsquo;t won fewer than 11 games in a season in almost a decade. Their current projected win total is 10.5, and that seems far more likely for the Chiefs than another 6-11 season--provided that perennial MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes is healthy for at least the majority of the season, which he wasn&amp;rsquo;t in 2025.&amp;nbsp;Teams that saw their 2025 preseason strength of schedule as foreboding in part because of the presence of the Washington Commanders know to just laugh it off. Washington collapsed to 5-12 after a 12-5 finish. The Lions dropped from 15-2 to 9-8, a six-game decline that wasn&amp;rsquo;t forecast in any prediction models.&amp;nbsp;The win total odds better reflected the downturn for both teams than just using the raw results from the prior season. However, it still left a hugely inflated strength of schedule figure entering the season.&amp;nbsp;Keep that in mind when discussion the strength of schedule concepts for your favorite team&amp;hellip;$.05--Longtime readers know this particular lament is a long-held criticism of the NFL&amp;rsquo;s schedule. I&amp;rsquo;ve said it before (repeatedly) and have written various cents over the years as well, but it needs to be reiterated once again.&amp;nbsp;The NFL needs to have all four teams in an entire division all get the same bye week. It&amp;rsquo;s the only fair and equitable way to concoct a level playing field. It makes more sense to condense all of the bye weeks into a four-week period, starting in Week 8 and ending in Week 11 (or Weeks 7 and 10), with all the North teams (both AFC and NFC) off on the same week, then the eight East teams, and so forth. Come out of the bye week with each team hosting a division for one week and on the road for the other week.&amp;nbsp;The AFC West offers a great example of how unbalanced the bye week distribution can be. Kansas City gets an absurdly early bye in Week 5. The Chargers sit out Week 7, while Denver is off in Week 10. Then there&amp;rsquo;s the Raiders, who must wait until Week 13 for their bye. That&amp;rsquo;s two full months later than divisional rival Denver! Regardless of the quirks and merits of early vs late bye weeks, the fact that one division competitor gets a bye in early October and another waits until December is ludicrously unfair. It breeds contemptuous inequity.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;For a league that prides itself on &amp;ldquo;any given Sunday&amp;rdquo; contests, where the difference between the best and worst teams is often not nearly as vast as other pro sports, artificially manufacturing schedule-related disadvantages makes no sense. It&amp;rsquo;s antithetical to the NFL shield and the spirit of fair and balanced competition. It&amp;rsquo;s long past time for the NFL to fix this eminently correctable oversight in scheduling.&amp;nbsp;]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Risdon]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 15:25:54 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://football.realgm.com/analysis/3692/$05-On-The-NFL-Schedule-Release</guid>
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      <title>2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions: Second Round Matchups</title>
      <link>https://hockey.realgm.com/analysis/559/2026-NHL-Stanley-Cup-Playoff-Predictions-Second-Round-Matchups</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs begins after just one first round series, Montreal Canadiens over the Tampa Bay Lightning, went the distance. The Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche each won their respective first round series in sweeps.&amp;nbsp;The Hurricanes and Avs, not surprisingly, are the favorites to reach the Stanley Cup Finals and we predict they will advance to the Conference Finals. Nathan MacKinnon and Frederik Andersen are the favorites to win the Conn Smythe trophy. MacKinnin is also the frontrunner to win the Hart Trophy as he could become the first player since Wayne Gretzky in 1985 to win both awards in the same season.&amp;nbsp;Eastern Conference Second Round&amp;bull; Hurricanes over Flyers in 5 games&amp;nbsp;&amp;bull; Sabres over Canadiens in 6 games&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Western Conference Second Round&amp;nbsp;&amp;bull; Avs over Wild in 6 games&amp;nbsp;&amp;bull; Golden Knights over Ducks in 6 games&amp;nbsp;]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Darryl Reina]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2026 14:18:11 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://hockey.realgm.com/analysis/559/2026-NHL-Stanley-Cup-Playoff-Predictions-Second-Round-Matchups</guid>
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      <title>My Favorite 2026 NFL Draft Pick For All 32 Teams</title>
      <link>https://football.realgm.com/analysis/3691/My-Favorite-2026-NFL-Draft-Pick-For-All-32-Teams</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Some analysts like to grade NFL Draft classes in the immediate aftermath of the selection process. I prefer to wait and see how they perform when they actually take to the field. Instead, I take a different approach.&amp;nbsp;I like to go through each NFL team&amp;rsquo;s draft selections and pick out my favorite pick for each team. Might not be their top choice, might not be the most popular or lauded selection, but the one that stands out as a great fit or value or just a pairing I really appreciate.&amp;nbsp;Arizona CardinalsIt&amp;rsquo;s tough to ignore what a great selection I think Chase Bisontis is at No. 34 overall, but landing Jeremiyah Love at No. 3 is a potentially transformative pick for the Arizona offense. Love is right there (potentially) with Saquon Barkley and Jahmyr Gibbs as franchise-defining running back talents taken highly in the draft. For a team that has lacked a cohesive identity on offense for some time and has already made some significant changes, Love can step in and be the capable face of the Cardinals.&amp;nbsp;Atlanta FalconsThe Falcons didn&amp;rsquo;t have a lot of draft choices this year, but they nailed their first one in cornerback Aveion Terrell. He joins his older brother in the Atlanta secondary. While he&amp;rsquo;s smaller than ideal, the younger Terrell showed sticky coverage instincts and a willingness to tackle at Clemson that will blend nicely into the Falcons secondary.&amp;nbsp;Baltimore RavensHe might not see the field much, if at all, until Derrick Henry moves on, but running back Adam Randall looks like an outstanding value for the Ravens. A converted wide receiver who weighs in at over 230 pounds, Randall can be the rare giant-sized third-down back. Getting him in the fifth round was a nice score for GM Eric DeCosta.Buffalo BillsOne of my favorite draft hauls overall, the Bills have a few candidates for my favorite pick of theirs. Fourth-round wideout Skyler Bell earns the status. I love the fit of a versatile, field-stretching receiver with some size who couldn&amp;rsquo;t thrive downfield in college because his quarterback at UConn didn&amp;rsquo;t have the arm. Josh Allen doesn&amp;rsquo;t have that problem.&amp;nbsp;Carolina PanthersHe might never play on the Carolina defense, but I love giving an opportunity to Miami Redhawks LB Jackson Kuwatch in the seventh round. Kuwatch, who couldn&amp;rsquo;t get on the field for years at Ohio State or Miami. In 2025, the rangy Kuwatch emerged as a lithe weapon. He&amp;rsquo;s got all the makings of a special teams ace with the athleticism to develop some as a coverage-oriented backer.&amp;nbsp;Chicago BearsScoring safety Dillon Thieneman at No. 25 overall is a great coup of patience for the Bears and GM Ryan Poles. The Oregon safety was often projected in the top 18. For a team that didn&amp;rsquo;t have a single safety under contract when the Combine opened, getting a potentially elite one that late in the first round is a brilliant pick for the Bears.&amp;nbsp;Cincinnati BengalsAfter trading the No. 10 overall pick for DT Dexter Lawrence, the Bengals rolled some dice. Auburn center Connor Lew could be a worthwhile wait in the fourth round if he returns to pre-injury form in 2027. Snagging long-limbed Washington CB Tacario Davis in the third is a smart gamble. His size and temperament should translate well to Cincinnati, and could portend a move to safety in time.Cleveland BrownsFor the second draft in a row, the Browns tapped into the MAC pool for a highly productive player with higher-end traits and potential than commonly seen. Last year it was TE Harold Fannin from Bowling Green. This year, safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren from the Toledo Rockets fits that billing. He&amp;rsquo;ll need a little adjustment time to the speed of NFL offenses, but the physically dominant McNeil-Warren has versatile playmaker written all over him. Cleveland selecting him near the end of the second round is a chef&amp;rsquo;s kiss on what looks like a very good draft class.&amp;nbsp;Dallas CowboysIt took a little maneuvering to make it happen, but the Cowboys moving up one spot to snag Ohio State safety Caleb Downs at No. 11 might wind up being the best decision of the entire 2026 Draft. Downs is perfect for what Dallas&amp;rsquo; defense needs. I admire the gumption to sacrifice some lower-rung draft capital to ensure the Cowboys land their guy.&amp;nbsp;Denver BroncosFor a team that didn&amp;rsquo;t pick until No. 66 overall, Denver struck me with a couple of very nice picks. My favorite is Mr. Irrelevant, Buffalo linebacker Red Murdock. He&amp;rsquo;s a throwback-style inside backer who would have been at home in the Parcells/Belichick defenses of the early 1990s. And he can absolutely make the Broncos roster with a strong rookie offseason.&amp;nbsp;Detroit LionsThe first two picks were outstanding fits, but my favorite Lions pick is Arizona State CB Keith Abney in the fifth round. The plucky Abney is a direct replacement for Amik Robertson, both at cornerback and in mentality. Drafting Abney almost 100 picks later than I had him ranked on the big board makes it even sweeter.&amp;nbsp;Green Bay PackersPatiently waiting for Dani Dennis-Sutton into the fourth round was a shrewd reading of the draft boards, but it&amp;rsquo;s the next Packers pick that prevails. Kentucky center Jager Burton was one of My Guys, a hard-nosed, athletic lineman with proven reps at both guard and center. Even in Kentucky&amp;rsquo;s decidedly un-NFL offense, Burton looked like a potential NFL starter. At worst, the Packers landed their top interior reserve for the next handful of years. There&amp;rsquo;s real value there.&amp;nbsp;Houston TexansIn the final mock draft, I projected Ohio State DT Kayden McDonald to Houston in the first round. The Texans correctly divined that he would last into the second, and GM Nick Caserio landed a much-needed widebody in the middle of the defensive line while getting better-than-expected value. That&amp;rsquo;s a big win for a team that might&amp;rsquo;ve also landed two future starting OGs in Keylan Rutledge and Febechi Nwaiwu.&amp;nbsp;Indianapolis ColtsThe Colts desperately needed linebacker help in the draft. Despite not picking until No. 53 overall, GM Chris Ballard accomplished his mission with Georgia LB C.J. Allen. No one would have been surprised if Allen came off the board 25 spots earlier; he&amp;rsquo;s a consummate high-floor tackling machine. Exactly what the Colts defense needed.&amp;nbsp;Jacksonville JaguarsPerhaps the toughest class to find a true &amp;ldquo;favorite&amp;rdquo; pick, the Jaguars had an interesting draft weekend. I like the chances of Texas A&amp;amp;M DT Albert Regis to emerge as a steady contributor. The beefy Regis is a smart fit in front of a speed-based LB corps that needs to be kept clean to operate efficiently.&amp;nbsp;Kansas City ChiefsIt&amp;rsquo;s hard to top the Chiefs, who needed CB help like fish need water, landing top corner Mansoor Delane from LSU at No. 9 overall. Delane offers immediate, high-end help at the position of biggest need for a Kansas City team that is trying to ebb a waning tide. Cincinnati WR Cyrus Allen in the sixth is a definite sleeper favorite, too.&amp;nbsp;Las Vegas RaidersFernando Mendoza. Don&amp;rsquo;t overthink this one. He&amp;rsquo;s a regime-defining selection at No. 1 overall, and the Indiana quarterback has a chance to be special for the Raiders. Bonus points to the Raiders for bringing in Kirk Cousins to hold Mendoza&amp;rsquo;s hand as he transitions to the NFL.&amp;nbsp;Los Angeles ChargersThe Chargers loaded up on Day 3 players with high ceilings and low floors, and that includes personal favorite Travis Burke. The giant offensive tackle from Memphis could emerge as a dominating presence for Los Angeles. At 117 overall, that&amp;rsquo;s a decent investment in a late-blooming prospect.&amp;nbsp;Los Angeles RamsThe Rams made this assignment tough. There&amp;rsquo;s a very real chance that none of their draft class of 2026 plays a single regular-season snap outside of special teams. Second-round TE Max Klare could also make that proclamation look foolish. If he clicks in the McVay offense with Matthew Stafford, Klare can be a matchup-dictating receiver of a tight end.&amp;nbsp;Miami DolphinsMiami made 13 picks, a great way to cleanse the palate and jumpstart the necessary roster overhaul. My favorite Dolphins pick is a conglomeration of the two linebackers, Jacob Rodrgiuez (2nd round) and Kyle Louis (4th round). Taken in their proper ranges, Rodriguez and Louis offer divergent but balanced skills as off-ball backers who should complement one another well. As individual prospects, I felt both were a little overhyped. Together? Yeah, that&amp;rsquo;s a plan that can easily maximize their collective talent.&amp;nbsp;Minnesota VikingsTaking Caleb Banks in the top 20 overall was quite a risk--albeit one with very high-end potential reward. I love Minnesota drafting an effective insurance policy against Banks on the defensive interior in Iowa State&amp;rsquo;s Domonique Orange. &amp;ldquo;Big Citrus&amp;rdquo; is a different style than Banks, but in the third round, Orange represents excellent value with his high floor.&amp;nbsp;New England PatriotsThe Patriots appeared to have hit a home run with their top pick, offensive tackle Caleb Lomu. Aggressively targeting an agile pass protector with significant upside is a great way to stabilize and solidify an offensive line in New England. Don&amp;rsquo;t be surprised if Lomu outplays some tackles drafted ahead of him in the first round. That&amp;rsquo;s what the Patriots are hoping for, no doubt&amp;hellip;&amp;nbsp;New Orleans SaintsThe Saints draft seemed devoted to high-upside players who might also not be ready to roll as rookies. The one exception to that is second-rounder Christen Miller. The big Georgia defensive tackle is NFL-ready as an interior presence who can get a little pocket push up the gut, too. I&amp;rsquo;m bullish on fourth-rounder Jeremiah Wright, too.&amp;nbsp;New York GiantsTough call between their two top-10 overall picks in LB Arvell Reese and OL Francis Mauigoa. I&amp;rsquo;ll go with Reese because he&amp;rsquo;s got the potential to be a difference-making defensive weapon in John Harbaugh&amp;rsquo;s defense. He&amp;rsquo;s a wild card that opposing offenses must pay attention to, and Reese has the mentality to play with guys like Brian Burns and Abdul Carter.&amp;nbsp;New York JetsThe Jets landed what appears to be an impressive draft class overall. Their final pick, Kansas State safety VJ Payne, is someone I expected would hear his name called a couple of rounds earlier. Payne has some rough patches on film but there wasn&amp;rsquo;t a better safety in the class at covering tight ends beyond the line of scrimmage, and that includes Caleb Downs. Late-round picks need to have one thing they can hang their hat on, and Payne has that.&amp;nbsp;Philadelphia EaglesSniping playmaking wideout Makai Lemon from the Steelers in the first round was both excitingly controversial and also a great pick. With A.J. Brown appearing to be on the way out, the Eagles offense sorely needs someone who can both get open and make things happen after the catch. That&amp;rsquo;s Lemon,&amp;nbsp;Pittsburgh SteelersThe host city selected a couple of potential fan favorites in Gennings Dunker, Kaden Wetjen and local product Eli Heidenreich. I gravitated more toward second-round wideout Germie Bernard, who is the type of selfless, do-it-all football player the Steelers seem to always covet but never land at his position. Whomever winds up playing quarterback in Pittsburgh will probably find Bernard&amp;rsquo;s skills quite appealing, too.&amp;nbsp;San Francisco 49ersIn a draft class that hasn&amp;rsquo;t been well-received by fans or media, I think the 49ers found a nice hit in the middle rounds with Ephesians Prysock. The long cornerback from Washington is a good fit and has more upside than a lot of corners in that range of the draft.&amp;nbsp;Seattle SeahawksThe Seahawks have been great over the years at finding very useful, overachieving defensive backs beyond the first round. They appear to have another in Bud Clark, a ball-hawking safety from TCU who reminds me a great deal of Lions All-Pro Kerby Joseph. Clark at the end of the second round could be one of those selections that fans of teams picking in the 50s will wonder about in a couple of years and think, &amp;ldquo;Why didn&amp;rsquo;t we?&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;Tampa Bay BuccaneersRueben Bain falling into their laps at No. 15 overall probably didn&amp;rsquo;t seem plausible a week before the draft, but that&amp;rsquo;s exactly what happened for the Buccaneers. Bain could very well be the premium answer to GM Jason Licht&amp;rsquo;s long search for pass-rush help.&amp;nbsp;Tennessee TitansI&amp;rsquo;m probably in the minority with this opinion, but I&amp;rsquo;m a big fan of the Titans landing Auburn DL Keldric Faulk at No. 31 overall. All the athletic tools are there for a guy of his size, and he&amp;rsquo;s a great tone-setting character. The one thing Faulk lacks is production at rushing the passer. Taking him at 31 instead of the teens mitigates some of the pressure on the precocious Faulk to produce right away, and that might ironically help him produce more.&amp;nbsp;Washington CommandersThe Commanders didn&amp;rsquo;t have a lot of picks, but they landed arguably the best player in the draft in Ohio State LB Sonny Styles at No. 7 overall. Styles moves like the safety he used to be, but he&amp;rsquo;s bigger than some of the pass rushers taken in this class. That&amp;rsquo;s a huge win for Washington. ]]></description>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Risdon]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:47:27 EDT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://football.realgm.com/analysis/3691/My-Favorite-2026-NFL-Draft-Pick-For-All-32-Teams</guid>
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